God is our Shepherd!

God is our Shepherd!

“The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.” Ps 23:1

Last month we studied YHWH Andonai – “the Sovereign LORD” or “LORD All-Powerful”.  One of the verses we see this in is Isaiah 40:10-11.   

10 See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and his arm rules for him.

See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him.

11 He tends his flock like a shepherd:  He gathers the lambs in his arms

and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.

Notice in verse 11 how the Sovereign LORD is shown as a shepherd who carries the lambs in His arms close to His heart.  The word here translated for “Shepherd” is “Râ‛âh.”  It is the same word used in Psalm 28:9 “…be their shepherd and carry them forever.”  It is also used in Psalm 80:1 “Hear us, O Shepherd of Israel, who lead Joseph like a flock…”  Psalm 95 and 100 respectively contain the phrases “…for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care” and “we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.”  God is portraying Himself as a shepherd and we as his sheep, his flock, his fold.  Interestingly enough the same word “Râ‛âh” is also used in Psalm23:1 in the phrase “the Lord is my Shepherd.”  The actual Hebrew for this line is  “YHWH Râ‛âh”. Here is another special compound name of God literally translated LORD Shepherd.  Because the name YHWH is from the very “hayah” meaning “to be,” “I AM,” or “He is” the line is translated, “The Lord is My Shepherd.”  

Now we must remember that the names of God tell us something about who He is, about His character.  To say the Lord is My Shepherd means, like the sheep, we are trusting in Him for our daily provision, guidance, protection, and constant companionship.¹  We trust Him as the “Shepherd and Overseer of your souls” (1 Pet 2:25).  Indeed, He calls Himself “the good shepherd” (John 10:11).  He goes so far as to tell us that as the Good Shepherd He lays down His life for the sheep. He finds those sheep who are lost and brings them back into the fold (Mt 18:12-13; Lk 15:3-7). 

He finds those sheep that are cast down—rolled over in such a way that they cannot get back up on their feet by themselves.  If the sheep stay in this position for very long gasses build up and can be fatal unless the shepherd comes and places them on their feet and rubs down their legs to get the circulation going.  Even then the shepherd must watch over them so that they do not stumble and become cast again.²  The shepherd watches over and protects the sheep as they have only for their defense legs to run and then they cannot even run fast.   So it is that the shepherd must be constantly aware of predators that come to “steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10).  But the shepherd is come that we “may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10).  This is the job of a good shepherd to see that his flock has life to the full through his protection, nourishment, guidance and companionship. 

The shepherd must know where to lead the sheep for their nourishment.  The sheep will over graze and kill off all vegetation if the shepherd does not lead them on to new green pastures allowing the old pastures time to recover from grazing.³  The shepherd must also know where to find still water for the sheep to drink.   

He is a constant companion to the sheep and so he knows each one by name (John 10:3) and they in turn know His voice and will not follow a stranger (John 10:4-5).  Shepherds would commonly put several flocks in a sheep pen guarded by a watchman at night.  In the morning the shepherd would call out his own sheep and they would follow his voice and in such a manner the sheep would divide themselves by following the voice of their shepherd alone.  In this way the shepherd was also leader and an authority over the lives of the sheep.⁴ 

So you can see how helpless the sheep are by themselves to find food and water, to be protected, to live at peace, even to stand up by themselves at times. What a picture of dependency upon the shepherd!  To know His voice, to be His companion, to depend on Him for food and water, for the restoration of our soul, for our protection, for our discipline and our comfort (“your rod and your staff”)– this is what it means to say “I shall not be in want.” That no matter what happens, our trust in the LORD Shepherd.  Let us say with the Psalmist “we are His people the sheep of His pasture” (Ps 100:3) to “our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep” (Heb 13:2o).  YHWH Râ‛âh—LORD Shepherd what a comforting name! 

Oh Good and Great Shepherd, we look to you; we trust in you.  For you care for your sheep with tender compassion meeting all our needs.  Help us to be more dependent on you, more confident in you, having faith in Your abilities to shepherd us well, to lead us in paths of righteousness for Your name sake so that our cup overflows and you anoint us with the oil of your Spirit living in us always!  Amen! 

Footnotes

¹Ryken, Leland, Jim Wilhoit, Tremper Longman, Colin Duriez, Douglas Penney, and Daniel G. Reid. "Sheep, Shepherd." Dictionary of Biblical Imagery. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1998. 782. Print.

² Keller, W. Phillip. "He Restoreth My Soul." A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23,. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Pub. House, 1970. 53-60. Print.

³ Keller, W. Phillip. "He Maketh Me to Lie Down in Green Pastures." A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23,. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Pub. House, 1970. 33-45. Print.

⁴ Ryken, 782.

References

All Scriptures not specified are quoted from Life in the Spirit Study Bible (NIV). Stamps, Donald C., and John Wesley Adams. Life in the Spirit Study Bible: New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003. Print.

God is the Sovereign LORD!

God is the Sovereign LORD!

“But as for me, it is good to be near God.

I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge” Ps 73:28

A name.  What’s in a name?  Is it really just a word or words we use to identify something?  In the Old Testament a name often captured the essence of the person.¹  When God tells us one of His names in the Scripture, we should be careful to glean the proper understanding of what He is telling us about Himself by using a specific name for Himself.  We have studied the name Immanuel and YHWH.  Now let’s take a look at Adonai.

Adonai is an emphatic form of the words “'âdôn  'âdôn” a root Hebrew word meaning to rule or be sovereign (a controller).  Often this root word is translated “lord” or “master” or “owner”.²   This word can also mean “firm” or “strong” and is used to reference people with a general recognition of  superiority (I.E. lord, master, prophet, priest, captain, governor, prince, and king). ³  Adonai is a derivative of this root word.  This is a unique word is an emphatic form of “'âdôn  'âdôn” which is used only as a proper name of God.  Often we find the word Adonai combined with the Tetragramaton for a combination of YHWH Adonai.  This compound name for God is found in 291 OT verses.  Of these verses 271 are found in the prophets and 210 are found in the book of Ezekiel.  This compound name of God is translated by modern versions of the bible in different ways.  The KJV, NASB, and ESV translate this as “Lord GOD,” which does denote in the word “Lord” the idea of master.  However, the CEV translates the same compound name as “LORD All-Powerful” and the NIV translates it as “Sovereign LORD.”  When we combine what we know of YHWH meaning “I am” or “I will be,” we get the meaning of “I am All-Powerful” or  “I am Sovereign.”

It is interesting to note that when the Lord speaks to Ezekiel to speak on behalf of Himself to the people He says “…Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says…’” (Eze 2:4) and later “…But when I speak to you, I will open your mouth and you shall say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says…’” (Eze 3:27).  This is the name that God is calling Himself.

When we start to look at the context surrounding the name YHWH Adonai, we gain even more understanding of aspects of this name of God.  Let’s look at a few together:

Ps 60:20 Our God is a God who saves; from the Sovereign LORD comes escape from death.

Here the Psalmist sees the “All-Powerful, Sovereign LORD” as the only one who can save us and give us an escape from death.

Ps 71:5 For you have been my hope, O Sovereign LORD, my confidence since my youth.

Ps 71:16 I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, O Sovereign LORD; I will proclaim your righteousness, yours alone.

Here the Psalmist sees the Sovereign LORD as his hope and confidence because of His mighty acts and the perfect righteousness that belongs to the Sovereign LORD alone.

Ps 73:28 But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds.

The Psalmist here sees the Sovereign LORD as good and as a refuge because of all the deeds the Sovereign LORD has done.  The All-Powerful, Sovereign LORD is our master, our mighty one, to whom all authority is given in heaven and on earth and to whom no other power or ruler could compare.

Ps 109: 21 But you, O Sovereign LORD, deal well with me for your name's sake; out of the goodness of your love, deliver me.

Here the Sovereign LORD is entreated to deal favorably with the Psalmist because part of His All-Powerful nature is to deliver and to be good.  Who would want to follow an All-Powerful bad leader, anyway?  Could there be any sense of justice in such a case?  Could there be any hope of benevolence toward his subjects?

Ps 140:7 O Sovereign LORD, my strong deliverer, who shields my head in the day of battle—

We can look to the Sovereign LORD for deliverance, to be strong on our behalf and to shield us when times get tough and the battle rages.

Ps 141:8 But my eyes are fixed on you, O Sovereign LORD; in you I take refuge--do not give me over to death.

The dictionary tells us “Sovereign” means “having supreme rank, power, or authority; preeminent, indisputable; greatest in degree; utmost or extreme; being above all others in character, importance, excellence, etc.”⁴  What a beautiful description of who God is!  He is supreme over all.  He has all the power.  He is the ultimate authority.  He is the preeminent one.  There was none before Him.  He is indisputable.   He is extreme.  He is above all others in character.  He is most important.  He defines excellence.

The All-Powerful, Sovereign LORD is our refuge, our shield, the one who does mighty deeds, whose character is above all others, and who deals with us beneficially, who knows everything.  We can take confidence in the All-Powerful, Sovereign LORD, because He will sustain us.  “Sovereign LORD” – what a wonderfully powerful name!

Footnotes
¹ Ryken, Leland, James C. Wilhoit, Tremper Longman III, Colin Duriez, Douglas Penney, and Daniel G. Reid. "Name." Dictionary of Biblical Imagery. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1998. 583. Print.
² Meyers, Rick. E-Sword. Strong’s Concordance entry: H113. Computer software. E-Sword. The Sword of the LORD with an Electronic Edge. Vers. 10.0.5. Rick Meyers. Web. <http://www.e-sword.net/>.
³ Meyers, Rick. E-Sword. Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Definitions entry: H113. Computer software. E-Sword. The Sword of the LORD with an Electronic Edge. Vers. 10.0.5. Rick Meyers. Web. <http://www.e-sword.net/>.
⁴ "Sovereign | Define Sovereign at Dictionary.com." Dictionary.com | Find the Meanings and Definitions of Words at Dictionary.com. Web. 11 Feb. 2012. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sovereign>.

References

All Scriptures not specified are quoted from Life in the Spirit Study Bible (NIV). Stamps, Donald C., and John Wesley Adams. Life in the Spirit Study Bible: New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003. Print.

I am is with you!

“I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you,

and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence.” Ex 33:19 

Moses had just brought the flock he was tending for his father-in-law around the back side of the desert and came upon the mountain of Horeb, called the mountain of God.  He notices a bush, not because it is a great bush, but because the bush was on fire.  Nothing new here, Moses has undoubtedly seen bushes burn before.  Most likely he has burnt some himself as fuel for the campfire on the edge of the desert where not much grows and it gets cold at night.  But then he notices something special about the fire and the bush.  The fire continues to burn and the bush is not consumed.  Normally the bush would burn up but this one does not.  So he turns aside to see this strange sight.  How odd…the bush does not burn up—he’s thinking.  Right there, God reveals Himself to Moses, calling his name “Moses!  Moses!”  Moses replies, as we all should when God calls our name, “Here I am.”  God tells him to take off his sandals because this is holy ground.  Then He proceeds to tell Moses He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  He has seen how His people are being mistreated at the hands of the Egyptians and He has come down to rescue them.  He tells Moses He is sending Him to Pharaoh to bring His people the Israelites out of Egypt. 

But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" 12 And God said, "I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain." 13 Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?" 14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.' " 15 God also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers--the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob--has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation. Exodus 3:11-15

The Amplified Bible renders verse fourteen as follows, “And God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM and WHAT I AM, and I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE; and He said, You shall say this to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you!” 

God chose this name for Himself to be referred to by His people.  He could chose any name but He chooses this one. The verb He uses here is “hayah,” meaning “to be.”¹  In the first person, this verb is translated “I am” or “I will be.”  Verse twelve also uses this verb when God says “I will be with you.”  Moses would have heard and understood the similarities.  Verse fifteen also uses a derivative of this verb when God says “The LORD, the God of your fathers.”  The word “LORD” is the third person singular form of the verb hayah² and is in its original form “YHVH.”¹  

This is called the Tetragrammaton meaning “the four letters” (the Hebrew letters are: Yod, He, Waw and He).  This four letter Hebrew word has its own name for a good reason.  It is the most common name for God in the Old Testament (over 6,500 uses).  Most Bibles will translate “YHVH” as “LORD.”  Part of the reason for this is that the name “YHVH” was not pronounced by the Jewish people so as not to break the third commandment.   

“In modern Hebrew, grammar [in] this matter is so serious and important, that the verb ‘to be’ (‘I am’) is not used in the present tense at all!  An Israeli will therefore state in Hebrew:  “I teacher ... I clever”, omitting the verb 'to be' (I am) in the present tense.  Usage of the Hebrew verb ‘HOVEH’ (I am) would imply referring to oneself as being the Almighty!”³ 

So the proper pronunciation of the word was lost.  Later the vowel points for the word Adonai meaning “My Lord” were added.  Altogether then the pronunciation became Yahweh (as the letter Waw [V] is pronounced as “W”).⁴   

NIV Life in the Spirit Study Bible notes, “The Lord gave himself the personal name ‘I AM WHO I AM’ (from this is derived the Heb Yahweh), a Hebrew phrase that indicates action.  God was in effect saying to Moses ‘I wish to be known as the God who is present and active.’…Inherent in the name Yahweh is the promise of the living presence of God himself day by day with his people…It expresses his faithful love and care and his desire to redeem his people and live in fellowship with them.  This corresponds with the fundamental promise of the covenant, ‘to be your God’ in Gen 17:7 which is the first and fundamental promise on which all other promises rest.  It means that God unreservedly binds himself to his faithful people to be their God, their shield and their reward [as he proclaims in] Gen 15:1.  It also means that God’s grace, pardon, promises, protection, guidance, goodness, help and blessing are given to them in love (Jer 11:4; 24:7; 30:22; 32:38; Eze11:20; 36:28; Zech 8:8).  All Christians inherit this same promise through faith in Christ (Gal 3:16).  The Lord states that this will be his name forever (v. 15).⁵ 

When God says “hayah – I AM,” He is declaring Himself as self-existent.  “The basic thrust of this verb describes the state of existence. As the third person form of haya, Yahweh literally means ‘He is,’ or ‘He exists.’  It is a description of who God is. He is the self-existing one.  When God told Moses ‘I am that I am,’ that is the first person singular form of haya, ‘ehyeh.’ It may be said that from God's perspective He is ‘I am,’ but from our perspective ‘He is.’” ⁶ 

When the Samaritan woman at the well told Jesus “‘I know that the Messiah’ (called Christ) ‘is coming…’” and Jesus replies “I who am with you am he” she would most likely have understood Him as saying “I AM.”  This is the reason why the Jews in John 8:59 picked up stones to stone Jesus because they had understood Him correctly to say “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was born, I am!”   It is not by accident the Messiah was called “Immanuel—which means, ‘God with us’” (Mt 1:22).  He has chosen the name “I AM” to remind us that He is always with us and has always existed. 

Years later when Moses asked God to show him His glory, God hid Moses in the cleft of the rock and let His goodness pass in front of him, proclaiming His name saying “The LORD, the LORD the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness…”  God here proclaimed “Yahweh, Yahweh” as the name He chose to grant Moses his request to show him His glory.  God has chosen to reveal Himself as Yahweh, the God who is, who has always been, who always will be, the One who is with us day by day expressing His love to us.  Yahweh – what a beautiful name!

Footnotes

¹ Strong’s and Thayer’s definitions from: Meyers, Rick. Vers. 9.0.3. Franklin, TN, 2010. Computer software.  http://www.e-sword.net/.

² Barker, Kenneth L., and Donald W. Burdick. "Exodus 3:15 Study Notes." The NIV Study Bible: New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1985. 91. Print.

³ "Restoration of the  Sacred Name." Bible Revelations Studies,Hebrew Hebraic Roots,Restoration Israel,Sacred Names. 16 May 2010. Web. 31 Dec. 2011. http://www.revelations.org.za/NotesS-Name.htm.

⁴ Wikipedia contributors. "Tetragrammaton." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 21 Dec. 2011. Web. 31 Dec. 2011.’

⁵ Stamps, Donald C., and J. Wesley. Adams. "Exodus 3:14 Study Notes." Life in the Spirit Study Bible: New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003. 97. Print.

⁶ Dulle, Jason. "Yahweh or Jesus: What Is God's Name?" Institute for Biblical Studies - (OnenessPentecostal.com). Web. 31 Dec. 2011. http://www.onenesspentecostal.com/yahorjesus.htm#foot1. 

References

All Scriptures not specified are quoted from Life in the Spirit Study Bible (NIV). Stamps, Donald C., and John Wesley Adams. Life in the Spirit Study Bible: New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003. Print.

All Scriptures marked AMP are quoted from "The Amplified Bible." BibleGateway.com: A Searchable Online Bible in over 100 Versions and 50 Languages. Web. 16 Dec. 2011. <http://www.biblegateway.com/>.