Luther had a marvelous image that we might want to take to heart. Part of the reason for the Reformation was that the church which God created at the beginning as a place where we could hear God’s voice and respond, believe that God wanted fellowship with us and would bless us, had turned into a place of confusion. God’s voice was turned into something terrifying as at Mount Sinai rather than the pleasant voice of the Shepherd. Luther said that we should find the Good Shepherd in church. So when you enter a church where the Gospel is rightly taught you should smile and remember the 23rd Psalm.
As often, therefore, as the Christian who belongs to a church in which God’s Word is
taught enters this church, he should think of this psalm. With the prophet he should
thank God with a happy heart for His ineffable grace in placing him, as His sheep,
into a pleasant green meadow, where there is an abundance of precious grass and
fresh water — that is, for being enabled to be at a place where he can hear God’s
Word, learn it, and draw from it rich comfort for both body and soul.
