PSALM 23
1
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He
makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads
me beside still waters.
3 He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake.
4 Even
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I
will fear no evil,
for you
are with me;
your rod
and your staff,
they
comfort me.
5 You prepare
a table before me
in the
presence of my enemies;
you anoint
my head with oil;
my cup
overflows.
6 Surely goodness
and mercy shall follow me
all the
days of my life,
and I
shall dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.
As we started our journey
through this psalm, we saw that only God’s sheep can call the Lord their
shepherd. It is an amazing gift to know that the Good Shepherd has promised to
provide all the needs of His sheep.
The sheep will never want,
because God Himself leads them to the provision they need. What a privilege to
know that the right food, in the adequate amount, will be provided. It is also
a blessing that the circumstances in which the sheep are fed are conducive to
their necessary nourishment.
Lest one forgets the
condition in which the sheep come to the shepherd, David in reminds us:
3 He restores my
soul.
He leads me
in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake.
The Shepherd feeds the
sheep because they need to be restored. Every sheep who comes to the Lord,
comes broken, needing to be fixed. The Word of God is not given to us just to
inform us, but because we are spiritually destitute.
Jesus said that to find
blessing, we must understand our condition.
Matthew 5:3
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
To be ‘poor in spirit’ means to be completely humbled
before God, unable to offer
anything, aware of one’s complete inability to do anything good.
Yet, Jesus invited those who
recognize their desperate condition to come to Him.
Matthew 11:28
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest.
The Lord needs to
completely renew our way of thinking, our goals, our perspectives; everything
that we are needs to be transformed.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he
is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
The work that God has to
do is radical and necessary. We come laden with sin, with the scars of its
consequences, and God begins to change us, as we submit to His word.
Romans 12:2
Do not be conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you
may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and
perfect.
God is transforming us and
thus is guiding us in paths of righteousness.
When sheep are sick, they
don’t know how to cure themselves; it is the Shepherd Who takes care of them. It
is very encouraging, that God is not surprised by the fact that we are broken.
He did not choose us because we were less broken than others, but because it
pleased Him to do so. Jesus Christ came to save that which was lost.
Mark 2:17
And when Jesus heard it, he said to
them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are
sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
We cannot come to God
pretending to be healthy, but humbly aware of our lost state, willing to be
submissive to His leading, and eager to be transformed by the Word of God.
David writes that the
shepherd leads the sheep. Being led implies a few things. First of all, that our
status quo is not acceptable, and secondly, that there will therefore be
changes necessary. The true sheep have not only made a commitment to become
God’s sheep, but they have also committed to follow Him. This journey is not a
brief one, for it is an ongoing progression that the Bible calls ‘sanctification’.
This spiritual progress should
be visible to others.
Philippians 3:12-14
12 Not that I have already obtained this
or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ
Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made
it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining
forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the
prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
God is working in us so
that our lives will progress toward spiritual maturity. He does it for His name’s
sake. He is leading us toward holiness, for His intention is that we be
conformed to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ.
Jesus said that the true
sheep will not follow other shepherds.
John 10:3-5
3…The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own
sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his
own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his
voice. 5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from
him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”
Why would the Lord do all
this? To bring glory to His name and to protect His reputation. God caringly
shepherds those who are truly His, so that they will walk according to His
righteousness. We are not talking about perfection, but certainly about
progress.
Paul said it clearly, when
he said that he was not perfect, that he had not arrived, but that he was
pressing on to the goal of God’s calling in Christ Jesus.
The sheep cannot become His
sheep on their own. They cannot find the pastures where can they be fed, nor
can they go in the right direction if they are not led.
We are so blessed, to know
that we are led by a careful and loving Shepherd. Life is not easy, and we will
see how necessary our Shepherd is, to lead us through its difficulties. What is
He looking for? Sheep who will follow Him, because they are broken and want to
be fixed!
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