TUESDAY September 12th
1 Peter 2:25
‘For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.’
Peter closes this section reminding us that we were like sheep that had strayed, he echoes here what we read in Isaiah 53:6 ‘All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—everyone—to his own way . . .’
Isaiah says we ‘have gone astray’, Peter says ‘you were straying like sheep’. Isaiah tells us that One came to suffer for the sheep, and Peter says that that One who suffered is now our Shepherd and the Overseer of our souls. This is the good news of what the gospel is all about, the Shepherd coming into this world to look for and to find the sheep that had strayed and to bring them safely into his fold. The Shepherd himself tells us that he is a good Shepherd (John 10).
David who composed Psalm 23 was well placed to talk about the LORD as the Shepherd because he himself had been a shepherd, he knew what it was like to tend for and to care for sheep. He knew himself that he had strayed like a sheep but the Lord had found him and made provision for him. To me, the sheep / shepherd language of the bible is wonderful, for it helps us to understand our relationship with our Shepherd the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was lost but Jesus found me
Found the sheep that went astray
Threw his loving arms around me
Drew me back into the way
But Peter doesn’t just call Jesus our Shepherd, he also calls him the Overseer of our souls, both words are very closely related, together they help us understand firstly that we are under new ownership—we belong to Jesus as the Shepherd and secondly, we are under his provision and care—he watches over us. This should I believe lead us to a third point which is that as Shepherd and as Overseer he knows what is best for us! This also means then that we can trust him, whatever our lot as the hymn writer says we should learn to know that it is well with our souls, and why, because we have the best Shepherd and the best Overseer who makes us lie down in green pastures, who also leads us besides still waters, who also restore our souls and is leading us into paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
I have a Shepherd, one I love so well;
How he has blessed me tongue can never tell;
On the Cross he suffered, shed his blood and died
That I may ever in his love confide.
Following Jesus, ever day by day,
Nothing can harm me when he leads the way;
Darkness or sunshine, whate’er befall,
Jesus, the Shepherd is my all in all.