Interestingly, after Part 1 happened on Saturday, my pastor preached on Psalm 23 on Sunday. Part of the sermon focused on the last part of verse 3, "He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake." The pastor said that the first verse of this section would be better translated, "He guides me on the right paths" and that it pictures the shepherd physically guiding His sheep down the right path.
He noted that the shepherd does not give his sheep a map of the right paths and say, "good luck!" Instead, he walks with them down the paths and shows them the way to go. From my experience working with animals, this probably involves physically blocking off the wrong path to prevent them from taking it!
The second part of this section says that He guides me in this way, "for His name's sake." In other words, if the shepherd showed up without his sheep, he would be ridiculed and never trusted with sheep again. I can't imagine having a group show up and having to tell them the ride was canceled because I could not get the horses to come in. That is simply not an option. I will go out and chase down each individual horse and walk them back in personally if necessary.
Since God is The Good Shepherd, He must guide His sheep rightly to protect His name. It is for His glory that He guides us on the right path. These two truths are such a comfort for me. Somehow, along the way, I have picked up the idea that God likes to sit back and watch me struggle to find His will. But it is not so! He is there with me, every step of the way, opening doors and closing off the way to the wrong path. And He will do it always because it is for His name's sake.
Additionally, the pastor mentioned that the shepherd would also often carry fruit in his hands behind his back so that the sheep would want to follow him. So, when I brought the horses in on Sunday, I took some feed out with me...and the whole herd came in!
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