The Shepherd’s Heart
He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul.
Psalm 23:2
Psalm 23 most probably provides for us a picture of the yearly trek a shepherd makes with his sheep. After the short winter they come to the lush grasslands of southern Judea where they would lie down to be fattened up on fresh and green grass, after the winter diet of stored grain. It is a picture also of what God does with us. It takes faith to follow Christ and all that we receive from Him is through the avenue of faith. The one who does not believe “should not expect to receive anything from the Lord” (James 1:7).
Yet the Lord also knows how weak our faith is, how quick we are to doubt, so He begins giving us simple ways to experience trust. A shepherd begins his relationship with the sheep of his flock all over again in the spring. They must learn to trust him, so he first leads them to green pastures. In the same way the Lord begins to strengthen us in our trust by showing us the wonderful truths of His Word that minister to our souls and strengthen us. And as we grow in trust in Him He takes us further into His word, lifting us up to higher spiritual experiences.
“Did you trust me to save you?” He says with His Spirit. “Then trust me also to lead you.”
The application of the work of shepherding the church, or the work of the pastor, is the teaching ministry of the pastor. Only one place in the New Testament do we find the word “Pastor” or “Shepherd” as a noun connected directly to a position in church leadership, Ephesians 4:11, and it is connected to the work of teaching: “Pastors-teachers” is the way it should be understood.
The shepherd feeds the sheep and the pastor feeds the people with the Word of God. We have entire disciplines today called “Pastoral Care” or “Seelsorge” in German. And quite often a good amount of psychology is added to the instructions we give students studying to become pastors. Not all of that is bad, of course, but some of it is not as helpful as we may think, and can even become harmful.
The teachings of the Scripture properly presented and properly given for application in the lives of Christians, by a called, trained, Spirit-filled teacher, will do more for the souls of the people of God than modern psychology. The pastor’s heart or the shepherd’s heart must be to feed the people of God with the Word of God. Taking the inspired Scripture and meditating on it brings peace, confidence, inner healing, direction, wisdom, and joy that would make the average psychologist jealous. This is because it is God who is at work in hearts and lives through His Word.
A pastor proclaiming the Word of God to the people of his church will do much good for many souls — his work only being limited by the depth with which he preaches and the relevance and clarity with which he applies the Word. A pastor, however, that puts aside the Word and relies instead on psychological counseling — one soul at a time — will have traded in an effective ministry for an ineffective ministry.
Souls are restored by the clear teaching of the Word of God as it is applied in hearts by the cool, refreshing ministry of the Spirit of God.
