Savior Like a Shepherd Lead Us

God has not abandoned us any more than he abandoned Job. He never abandons anyone on whom he has set his love. Nor does Christ, the good shepherd, ever lose track of his sheep. J.I. Packer, this is The Bright Forever. Hello and welcome to The Bright Forever. My name is Andy Peavyhouse and I will be your host as we rediscover some of the greatest hymns of the Christian faith. Last time we talked about the doxology and those 25 words that have permeated our hearts for the last almost 350 years and how amazing it is that just those 25 words have lasted and have stood the test of time and still to this day move our hearts. He who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him, the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. This is Jesus speaking in John chapter 10, verses two and three. The sheep hear his voice. It's a beautiful picture. And Jesus continues in that chapter and says, I am the good shepherd. Just like the quote from the beginning where J.I. Packer says, Christ, the good shepherd, never loses track of his sheep. Today, we are going to be talking about Savior like a shepherd, lead us. This is a hymn that is attributed to English woman, Dorothy Ann Thrupp. And it's found in almost every Christian hymnal, even across denominational lines. She was born in Paddington Green in London, England, in 1779. And Dorothy died in Paddington Green in London, England, in 1847. Dorothy spent her entire life in London, where she wrote stories for children's magazines. She was very modest in character, and she avoided personal publicity. And so in that, she used a lot of pen names. She didn't always like to take credit and put her name out there on the things that she wrote. Because of this, she's not really fully credited for all of her works. Why she didn't credit herself, I mean, other than the fact that she just didn't want the publicity, we don't really know. But regardless, the truths of what she says, and specifically in this hymn, the gospel truth that is echoed through it are ours to cherish. And they have this childlike stature and faith. Today, this hymn remains a strong, timeless invitation and a prayerful response to, I believe, both what we find in Psalm 23 and a lot in what Jesus tells us, both in John 10 and in Luke 15, where he tells us the parable of the lost sheep. Savior Like a Shepherd Lead Us was first published in 1836 in a collection of songs titled Hymns for the Young, and it was compiled by Dorothy Ann Thrupp. Some publications credit her, but some don't, and some just cite it as this hymn was written by Anonymous. By one count, Savior Like a Shepherd Lead Us appears in just over a thousand hymnals. It is one hymn that most church members can recognize across denominational lines. And just hearing it, they just automatically, as soon as you hear the... You automatically know it's Savior Like a Shepherd Lead Us. What may surprise most churchgoers, though, is that for such a well-known and well-loved hymn of the Christian faith, we know very little about how it was written. Because we don't know a the things that Dorothy Thrupp wrote and we don't have a lot of information about why she wrote this or what she did and all these things because she was very modest. She was very kind of, um, when it came to publicity and her personal life, we don't know a whole lot. And so we don't know really what the story is behind this hymn, but we do have a story that goes along with this hymn. which I love and we're going to get to. It's really, really cool. But before we get there, I want to kind of talk through the hymn itself. But before we do that, I have just, first of all, I'm really excited because this podcast is going out to more and more people each week. And we have listeners in the Netherlands now. We have listeners in the UK. We have listeners in South Korea. We have listeners now in the Philippines as well. And I came across a virtual choir from the UCCP Cosmopolitan Church in the Philippines.

And

And it's really, really cool. It's a virtual choir that's singing Savior Like a Shepherd Lead Us. And in honor of my listeners, my new listeners who are in the Philippines, this is a church in the Philippines doing a virtual choir of Savior Like a Shepherd Lead Us. So check this out.

you're like a shepherd for us Use thy force, prepare, prepare Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus Thou hast bought us, Thine we are, we are Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus Thou hast bought us, Thine we are We are Thine, do Thou befriend us. Be the guardian of our way. Seek us when we go astray. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, hear, O hear us when we pray. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, hear, O hear us when we pray. let us seek thy favor early let us do thy will God will blessed Lord and only Savior with thy some spirit you Love does love us delude.

Awesome. That's so cool. I just love it. And thank you to all of those out, all of you out there who are listening to this podcast, who listen to this podcast every week. It really does. I don't even have words really to express my thankfulness to you. When I first started this, I was not expecting it to even last forever. more than a couple of weeks. I was like, nobody's going to want to listen to this. Nobody's going to want to hear this. It's just for me and for my girls. And that was okay. And I was like, yeah. But to see the response and to see people really loving this podcast and hearing from y'all about the different things that you like about the podcast has been really, really cool. And please continue to send me the things that you like. If you want to hear a certain hymn, if you want to tell me your story, I want to hear it. I have gotten a handful of great stories and great things that people have told me. And so thank you so much for being willing to write me and to tell me how this experience and how this podcast has touched your heart and touched your life. If you do want to send in a message to The Bright Forever, you can send it to podcast at thebrightforever.com. Again, that's podcast at thebrightforever.com. You can also go to our website, which is www.thebrightforever.com. Go to our contact us section, and there is a little form right there that you can send a message to us that way as well. Before we get into the story that I want to tell, I want to kind of look at this hymn, because there's two sections of Well, I'm going to share a bunch of scripture probably, but it kind of goes back and forth. And I kind of was looking at Psalm 23, and I was looking at John 10, and I was looking at Luke 15. And then I went back to Isaiah 53, where it talks about all we like sheep have gone astray. And I'm just looking at this hymn. And just like multiple hymns that we've looked at so far during this season, I'm this hymn tells a story and it kind of goes in progression verse by verse. And it starts with, Savior, like a shepherd, lead us. Much we need thy tender care. In thy pleasant pastures, feed us. For our use, thy folds prepare. Reminds me of the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. Those green pastures, in thy pleasant pastures, feed us. In John 10, Jesus even says, I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. We will find life there. And we will find our desperate needs, the things that we need for life, we find in him. And I just love that. I would even go even farther when later on in chapter 10, he says, for this reason, the father loves me because I laid down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. He laid down his life for his sheep. And it goes into that next part. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, thou has bought us, thine we are. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, thou has bought us, thine we are. through his blood, through what he has done for us on the cross, Christ has bought our salvation by laying down his life for us. We have been bought and we've been bought with a price. And then it goes into, okay, we've been bought with a price. He's leading us. He's guiding us. And it says, we are thine. Do thou befriend us? Be the guardian of our way. I love that because he leads us in the paths of righteousness for his namesake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. We are thine. Be the guardian of our way. We can walk through the valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil because he is the guardian of our way. It says, keep thy flock from sin, defend us, seek us when we go astray. Jesus again says, I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me. Just as the father knows me and I know the father, I lay down my life for the sheep. He defends us. He lays down his life for us. And then in Luke 15, it goes further. It says, keep thy flock from sin, defend us, seek us when we go astray. Well, when do we go astray? It takes us to Isaiah or to Romans, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But even go back to Isaiah. Why is the suffering servant coming? It says, surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken by God, smitten or stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And by his wounds, we are healed. Then it says, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. And then Jesus tells us, Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn't he leave the 99 in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, rejoice with me. I have found my lost sheep. I tell you that in the same way, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who do not need to repent. And then the song says, blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus here. Oh, hear us when we pray. in light of the scripture, I go, it's not just any old prayer. I think it's a prayer of repentance saying, blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus. Look, we've gone astray. Hear us. We're never too far. We're never too far gone. for Jesus to hear us when we pray. Then it moves on and says, thou has promised to receive us. So not only does he hear us when we pray, he's promised to receive us. Poor and sinful though we are. We are, we're poor and we are sinful. And yet, In the midst of that, thou hast mercy to relieve us, grace to cleanse, and power to free. It reminds me of Romans 5, verse 8, that says, but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Thou has promised to receive us. God promises to hear our prayer and to receive us back into the fold. He goes out and finds us and brings us back. Poor and sinful, though we are in the midst of our sin, even while we were still sinning, he went out and found the one. In the midst of our sin, he goes out and finds us because he has mercy to relieve us and grace to cleanse and power to free us from the bondage of sin. And then this part, which it's repeated again in verse four, I've always thought meant to get up early, but it says, Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, early let us turn to thee. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, early let us turn to thee. And the more I thought about it and the more I've read about it, I'm going, I don't think it's talking about getting up early and turning to God. I think it's talking about children and saying early in our lives, let's turn to Christ. Let's turn to God early. Because I don't know about you, but it's really hard when you're older to let go of some things. I think that's why Jesus loved having the little children come to him because they didn't come with all the baggage that was keeping them from believing or keeping them from trusting or keeping them from going astray. They just wanted to be with Jesus. I think sometimes we let all of the baggage and all of the things in life, and we've always done it a certain way and we want it done the way we want it done. And it's so difficult to let go. And so I read this now and I'm going, blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, early, let us turn to thee. That's one of the reasons why I'm doing this podcast. I want my girls to get some of this information. deep theology, this deep understanding of who Christ is and what he does for us and what he has done for us on the cross and get it into their lives when they're young so that when they're old, they won't depart from it. They won't have to learn it the way I learned it through sometimes pain and through embarrassment. And through acting like a fool and doing stuff that could destroy their lives. Early, let us turn to thee. Even goes into, again, goes back to Psalm. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. There's goodness and there's mercy at the hands of Jesus. And then it goes into verse four and it says it again early. Let us seek thy favor early. Let us do thy will. Get into God's word as soon as you can. Look, get into God's word quickly. Quickly. Don't wait. Don't procrastinate on this. I am the king of procrastination at times. Don't procrastinate on this. Don't hear something and go, I need to change my life, but I got to do this first. Or, oh, I got to do this first. No, early, let us seek thy favor. Early, let us do thy will. As soon as it happens, as soon as we know, let's stop and let's fix it. Let's give it to Christ. Let's let go of it and see what God can do with our lives in his hands. And it says, blessed Lord and only savior with thy love, our bosoms fill just like a deep breath. Fill us with your love. God fill us with that love. Let us know it. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, thou hast loved us, love us still. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, thou hast loved us, love us still. I think it goes back to that verse in Romans again, that God demonstrates his love for us. How do we know that he loves us? Even in the midst of our most sinful times in life, when we are just living for ourselves and nothing else, it's our way or the highway. I'm going to get mine no matter how I can. That's when God demonstrated his love for us. And that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me just as the father knows me. And I know the father. And I lay down my life for my sheep. Man, it's a powerful song. And it's written for kids. It's written for young people. But man, I can't tell you how much it's taken its toll on on this heart. Now, I told you, I have this great story. So I want to share it with you. So we don't know a whole lot about the author or why she wrote it, but there's a beautiful story that kind of, it's unusual and it's unusual in connection to this hymn. But this guy by the name of Ira Sankey, He was a famous song leader for D.L. Moody for nearly 30 years and was known worldwide. This story, this account is told by Ira Sankey in his autobiography. And it goes like this. The year was 1876 and Sankey was traveling on steamboat up the Delaware River on Christmas Eve. Now, travelers on such a holiday are somewhat cut adrift from a world where you would normally think Christmas Eve were all together with family. But people who are having to travel on Christmas Eve, they're kind of cut off. And so they're just sort of drifting through. And so they're not able to celebrate with loved ones. And often they kind of cling together. and create this little circle of warmth with each other. The people who are traveling kind of become their own little family. This was that type of journey. On the deck were gathered a number of passengers looking out at the calm starlit night. And someone said, Mr. Sankey is on board. And immediately there were cries, let him sing for us. Let Mr. Sankey sing. He stood leaning against one of the great funnels of this boat. Before he began, he stood for a moment as if in prayer, kind of trying to decide what he was going to sing. I've had that experience before. When someone's asked me to sing, I'm like, I don't know. So I got to kind of sit back and kind of think through things. He wanted to sing a Christmas song, but somehow the words of the The shepherd song were what came to his heart. So he started singing. Savior, like a shepherd, lead

us. Much we need thy tender care. In thy pleasant pastures feed us, for our use thy folds prepare.

And among the listeners, there was a deep stillness. The words telling the sweet story of God's love for wandering man. And the beautiful melody floated out across the deck, across the water and into the night. And every heart was stirred. At the end of the song, there was an almost audible response. One man stepped forward, a sort of rough looking man. And he turned to Mr. Sankey and he said, did you ever serve in the Union Army? Yes, Sankey replied, in the spring of 1860. Can you remember if you were doing pickup duty on a bright moonlight night in 1862? Yes, I do. answered Sankey with surprise. Were you? And the man replied, I did too. But I was serving in the Confederate Army. When I saw you standing at your post, I said to myself, that fellow will never get away from here alive. I raised my musket and took aim. I was in the shadow completely hidden while you walked in full moonlight. At that instance, you began to sing just as a moment ago. The song was Savior Like a Shepherd Lead Us. The music reached my heart. I took my finger off the trigger. I'll wait until the end of the song. I said to myself, I can't miss him. I can shoot him afterwards. As you sang, you reached the place that says, we are thine, do thou befriend us. Be the guardian of our way. I could hear every word perfectly. and how the memories came to my heart. I began to think of my childhood and my mother. She loved God, and she had sung that song to me many times. But she died all too soon. Otherwise, I think my life might have been different. At the end of the song, I could not raise my musket again. It was impossible for me to take aim. Though you still stood in the bright moonlight, a perfect target. Then I thought of the Lord. I looked at you and thought, the Lord who was able to save that man from certain death must surely be great. And mighty. My arm dropped to my side. And I cannot tell you all the things I thought at that time. My heart was smitten. But I didn't know what to do. Just now, when you were about to sing and stood quietly as if praying, I recognized you. I've wandered far and wide since that occasion. I have never found that shepherd. Please, help me now find a cure for my sick soul. Deeply moved, Mr. Sankey threw his arms about the man who had been his enemy. who indeed could have ended his life in a moment. And that Christmas Eve night, a former soldier found the great and tender shepherd as his savior. On a river boat going up the Delaware River, Christmas Eve, 1876, Ira Sankey suddenly realized how blessed a man he was to have sung these words of a children's hymn back in 1862 on that moonlight evening. It's not about the writer. It's a story that captures your heart. The words of this song saved two lives. One from absolute sure death and the other one from eternal death. We serve an amazing God and a good shepherd. And you can trust him. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is truly an honor to share this podcast with you every week. I absolutely love doing it. It has been such a pleasure. There is a chance this could be the last episode for this season. My wife is very pregnant and will be having a baby at any moment. And if she does, this may be the last episode for a little while. If that is the case, I love you all. I thank you so much. for just everything you have done in making this podcast happen. And thank you for listening. If we do get to do one more, I'm going to try and do one more maybe next week right before Thanksgiving if we have a chance. If not, this will be the last one at least until possibly the beginning of next year. But I want to say thank you again. Thank you, thank you, thank you for making this podcast as wonderful as it has been. In the meantime, if we are out, please, if you haven't had a chance to listen to all of the episodes, listen to all of the episodes. Share it. Share it on Facebook and Twitter and all the other social media avenues that you have available to you. We would love to get out and be out there for everyone to see. I will say we are edging close to a thousand downloads of the podcast, which is absolutely amazing to me. The fact that this has been downloaded a thousand times is absolutely just mind blowing to me. And so again, thank you for going on this journey with me. Thank you for coming on board and Being willing to hear what I have to say and coming back and hearing it week after week. It surprises me sometimes that I have people who continually follow this. I am very, very grateful. And thank you so much for just listening, for being a part of it. And for those of you who have sent in comments, thank you so much for the positive words, for just... Just knowing that there are people out there who are loving this and are enjoying hearing these stories. And it's not just about me. It's not just about our girls, but it's overflowing into other people's lives. And that's awesome. And I'm really excited about that. That is all for now. Thank you so much. I'm going to close us out in prayer. And then we'll be done. Father, thank you so much for who you are. God, thank you for this podcast. Thank you for the men and the women who you have just spoken deeply to and to write these amazing hymns. God, we thank you for the love that you have demonstrated to us in that while we were sinners, your son came and died for us. so that we can have life, life abundant and life to the full. And so God, we thank you for that. We thank you for your love. We thank you for your grace and your mercy that you pour out on us every single day. God, we love you. We praise you. We give you all the honor and all the glory in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you again. Have an amazing week. And if we see you back next week, awesome. If not, have a wonderful holiday season and we will be back hopefully at the beginning of next year. We're out.

Thank you.