Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Psalm 23:1 The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.
THE GOOD SHEPHERD PROVIDES ALL THAT WE NEED
One of the key points to gaining comfort from this psalm is to be able to accept the premise that you are a sheep. Naturally, we would rather be described as a different sort of animal -- maybe as strong as a bear, or fast as a cheetah. I think even hard-working as an ant would be better than being called a sheep. If we would describe a sheep we might say as helpless as a sheep or as dumb as a sheep. That hurts a bit, but if the shoe fits we must wear it. Let's face it, we are sheep.
This was a fact that David accepted about himself, and we can too with this benefit: We are able to make the claim along with King David in Psalm 23:1, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want." (That is, "I will lack nothing.") This sums up the entire 23rd Psalm. The rest of the verses expand upon this theme. In our Lord we have a Shepherd who very ably supplies all of our needs to the point that there is nothing that we lack.
The one with no faith or little faith might deny this statement because he would look at his wish list and say, "There's plenty that I want and I don't have." Truly though, as a member of God's flock there is nothing more that you need. You have God's love. You have His forgiveness. You have His righteousness. He's even given you the necessities and beyond to make it through this life. When we turn our minds to the great spiritual needs that we have and the tremendous benefits that God freely gives, then we can easily say, "I lack nothing. I am well supplied."
