Know that the Lord is God. It is he that made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
✙ Ps 100:3
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Psalm 100:3 emphasizes a lot of stuff I tend to take for granted. First, what it emphasizes:
And God's relationship to God's people is something else I either take for granted or misunderstand. I forget that Psalm 100:3 isn't saying that God claims all people—only Israel. And they are the ones who are shepherded by God as sheep in a pasture.
And when I remember what this psalm is actually saying, I, as a Christian, seem to think that I am automatically included among the sheep of God's pasture, or that I am among those who have replaced Israel—as though God would forget God's covenant with Israel in order to include me.
I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.
Christians usually read John 10:16 as though we're this fold, and that the other sheep are non-Christians. We often even include Jews among those other sheep. How we can possibly read that without acknowledging that we Gentiles are the other sheep and that Israel is this fold, I cannot fathom. But 2000 years of arrogance is hard to set aside.
- It reminds Israel that יהוה (and no other entity) is God,
- It is יהוה (and not some other god) who made Israel,
- Israel belongs to יהוה as the particular people of the Creator God,
- יהוה cares for Israel as a shepherd cares for a flock.
And God's relationship to God's people is something else I either take for granted or misunderstand. I forget that Psalm 100:3 isn't saying that God claims all people—only Israel. And they are the ones who are shepherded by God as sheep in a pasture.
And when I remember what this psalm is actually saying, I, as a Christian, seem to think that I am automatically included among the sheep of God's pasture, or that I am among those who have replaced Israel—as though God would forget God's covenant with Israel in order to include me.
I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.
Christians usually read John 10:16 as though we're this fold, and that the other sheep are non-Christians. We often even include Jews among those other sheep. How we can possibly read that without acknowledging that we Gentiles are the other sheep and that Israel is this fold, I cannot fathom. But 2000 years of arrogance is hard to set aside.
Thank you, Lord, for your constant love for Israel. May I be among those other sheep you bring into your fold, that there may be one flock, and one Good Shepherd, in whose Name I pray as he taught me: Our Father...
