Today we will begin our verse by verse study of Psalm
23. I hope you don’t feel too bad after
yesterday’s post regarding our being called God’s “sheep”. We, like sheep, are so in need of a shepherd
who loves us, cares for us and protects us.
As I mentioned at the end of the last post, John 10:26-28 has a direct
connection to the opening words of Psalm 23.
Yesterday we read these words from Jesus regarding us as his sheep.
“But you do not
believe because you are not my sheep. My
sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall
never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.”
Jesus makes it absolutely clear that not all of us are his
sheep. He says that we must believe in
him, listen to his voice and follow him.
For me, to believe means we
must acknowledge that he is who he says he is, the Savior of mankind. It’s not enough to say that we believe he
existed or even that he was God’s son and gave his life for mankind. We must make it a personal belief, we must
believe all the previous statements listed here but there is one more thing we
need. We need to receive or accept as
fact that he died for our sins, our own, personal sins. We need to accept that his sacrifice was for
us, personally, by asking him into our lives as our personal Savior. Jesus spoke of this in John 3:16. That’s a very familiar verse but the two
which follow make this whole concept very clear. Check out what Jesus said in John 3:16-18
“For God so loved the
world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not
perish but have eternal life. For God
did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world
through him. Whoever believes in him is
not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he
has not believed I the name of God’s one and only Son.”
These verses are echoed by Jesus just a few chapters later
in John 10 where he responds to the question asked by Jews who were listening
to him, “How long will you keep us in
suspense? If you are the Messiah tell us
plainly.” (vs. 24) The next two verses state very clearly what the problem
is. Jesus says in verses 25 and 26 “I did tell you, but you do not
believe. The miracles I do in my Father’s
name speak for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep.” Jesus is saying to these Jews, “You are not my sheep.” To put it another way, he’s saying “I’m not your shepherd.” That is where I would really like to begin
the thoughts related to todays’ opening words of Psalm 23.
David begins Psalm 23 with these words, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.” This opening statement is actually the entire
23rd Psalm in a nutshell. It
is an ‘if-then’ statement. Let me put it another way, ‘If the Lord is your shepherd, then you will not be in want.’ If that is a true statement, and it is, then
the opposite must be true as well, ‘If
the Lord is not your shepherd, then
you will be in want.’ I hope this is
making sense to you. To put it another
way, the blessings, assurances, words of comfort and encouragement found
throughout this 23rd Psalm are not promised to everyone. They are promised to the Lord’s sheep. All who believe in Jesus Christ as their
Savior, understanding that he has paid the sacrifice for their sins, are his
sheep and they fall under his care. We
can place our absolute faith in him and know, without a doubt, that we will be
okay as long as we stay close to him.
Just keep remembering that we are his ‘sheep’, whom he loves and will
take care of.
I hope you can see that I’m talking about a personal
relationship with the creator of all things.
Psalm 23 doesn’t begin with “The
Lord is the shepherd” or “The Lord is
a shepherd” and not even “The Lord is
our shepherd.” David says, very
intentionally, “The Lord is MY shepherd.” Can you see the difference? This is as personal as it gets, friends. That’s why Jesus came to earth in the first
place. Without his sacrifice on the
cross we would never be able to have this intimate, personal communion with
God. Before Jesus’ death and
resurrection there were involved steps required to even approach God. If you have ever studied the Old Testament
passages relating to the tabernacle and later on, the Temple, you have an idea
of what I’m talking about. There were
all sorts of regulations to be followed to relate to God, whose presence
appeared in the Holy of Holies behind curtains which separated man from God. It’s pretty amazing that the moment Jesus died
on the cross that curtain was torn in two, opening the path for us to approach
God on our own, made holy and clean by the sacrifice Jesus made for us. Don’t believe this one? Check out these verses: Exodus 26:31-33; Mark 15:37-38; Luke 23:44-46; Hebrews 10:19-20
It’s pretty amazing that the God of all creation cares for
us that much. Did you happen to notice
in the Mark 26 passage that the curtain was torn from top to bottom? I have learned over the years that no detail
in the scripture is insignificant. We
may not understand its significance but that doesn’t mean that it’s not
there. For years I read this passage and
missed an important point. Mark writes
that “The curtain of the temple was torn
in two, from top to bottom.” (vs. 38)
In every religion I’m familiar with except Christianity, man struggles
to reach out to God. In Christianity God
reached out, or reached down, to us when he sent his son to earth to die for
us. When Mark writes that the curtain
was torn “from top to bottom” it
shows us that we didn’t force God’s hand at all. It was by his hand and in his plan that the
curtain, that which separated man from being in the very presence of God, was
opened. It was torn from the top (God’s
end) to the bottom (our end). God was
opening the path for intimate one to one communion with his creation. I love it when someone shows me something
like that in the Word. I missed that for
years but now when I read it I get excited about it all over again. How about you? God made it all happen for us. It was his gift, his plan, his love in action
on our behalf. And that takes us to the
second half of Psalm 23:1. You thought I’d
forgotten about it didn’t you?
“The Lord is my
shepherd, I shall not be in want.” As
I read the second half of this verse I see that God will take care of my
needs. It doesn’t say that he will give
me what I want. A lot of people seem to
get that mixed up. Probably the most
familiar verse on this topic is found in Philippians 4:19. “And my
God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” Please notice that he never promises to meet
all our ‘wants’ but our ‘needs’. I
immediately flash back to the days of raising children. I’m sure many of you have had a similar
experience. You child teases about “needing”
something when, in reality, they don’t need it, they “want” it. As parents we always tried to make sure our
kids had what they needed and didn’t focus just on what they wanted. I’m sure you get the point without my going
into great detail but don’t we often do the same thing with God in our prayer
lives? We have things we think we “need”
when they are really something we “want”.
We ask God to provide these things for us and I often think that God’s
answers are like the answers my wife and I would give our children. There were usually three possible choices: “Yes!”,
“No!” or the one the kids really hated to hear, “We’ll see.” Many times in my own life I have sensed the
same kind of answers from God. There are
times when I have prayed about something and was sure it was a good and godly
request only to sense a “No” coming from God.
Later on, I often realized that I got the answer I sought years later
when it was the right time. God knew
that I wasn’t ready to receive a “Yes” when I first asked but, in his infinite
wisdom, he knew when it should happen. Paul
faced the same thing. I won’t go into detail
here but you might enjoy reading about it in Acts 16:6-10.
If we have confidence that our “shepherd” knows our needs,
wants the best for us, and can see ahead into our future, then we can relax and
learn to be content in our situations rather than be anxious about them. Maybe we should use the first verse of Psalm
23 as a daily reminder of his provision and love. I want to share two passages which speak to
this idea of being content.
“I
know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have
learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well
fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me
strength.”
Philippians 4:12, 13
“But
godliness with contentment is great gain. For we
brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.
But if we have food and
clothing, we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and
a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin
and destruction. For
the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money,
have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” 1 Timothy 6:6-10
Think about the shepherd and his sheep once
more. Do you think they were murmuring
to each other, whispering things like: “Does he know where we’re going?” “Doesn’t
he know we’re hungry?” “I’m tired, doesn’t he care that we all need some rest?” You get the idea. The sheep don’t act that way because they
trust their shepherd totally. They know
that he will take care of them as he always does. They go where he leads and do what he tells
them (for the most part) because they’ve learned that he cares for them and
will provide for whatever they need. Isn’t
that the essence of Psalm 23:1? “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in
want.” Yup, I think I’m going to
make that a sentence I use when I get up every morning just as a reminder. Maybe you could try it as well? Use your own words if you want to. Make it personal. You know, like that personal, loving shepherd
you have. Remember, The Lord is MY
shepherd. That’ll make all the
difference.
Love to you all in the name of our Savior….and Shepherd,
Jesus Christ.
Until next time.
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