Trust in Our Shepherd

One of my favorites Psalms is the 23rd Psalm. There are few verses in all of Scripture that speak more powerfully about the rich and abundant life that is found in a walk of intimacy with God. As you read the words of the first three verses, let them speak to your heart:

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he restores my soul. (NIV)

The imagery used is God as a shepherd and His dearly loved children as sheep. The use of the shepherd analogy occurs several times in the Old Testament, mostly in the prophets. In Ezekiel chapter 34, the prophet voicing God’s thoughts says that Israel has suffered from having bad shepherds, ones who feed only themselves and look out only for their own advancement. But God promises that He will send a good shepherd whose heart is for the welfare of the sheep. In John chapter 10, Jesus seems to pick up on the words spoken through the prophets and declares that He is the Good Shepherd. He is trustworthy, willingly laying down His life for the well-being of the sheep. His sheep listen to His voice, and follow Him.

The 23rd Psalm describes the characteristics of sheep who have the Lord as their shepherd. The first characteristic is that they will not be in want. That is to say, they do not need to be concerned that their needs will be met, because God Himself will provide for them. Let the imagery soak deep into you as you picture yourself as a sheep being cared for by the Good Shepherd. Verse 2 says that we will be in green pastures, which speaks of abundant food and a good place to rest. It goes on to say that we will be beside quiet waters, which means our thirst will be satisfied, and we will not have to strive for that thirst to be satisfied.

Then verse 3 says something very powerful: God restores your soul. That means that no matter how unsettled, fearful, upset, confused, or disturbed we have become, when we find ourselves in God’s care, the turbulence in our minds and souls will end and we will find true peace. The idea of restoration often has the idea of a process. That is, restoration may be instantaneous, but often it is not. Restoration often requires us to be led out of the chaos where we have resided, into the green pastures that are healing places for our souls.

I have personally experienced God as a gentle healer of my soul. On a number of occasions, He has rescued me from lies I had held for years about myself or about Him. These were lies that had kept me captive, preventing me from living with the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:10) in and through me. God is marvelously patient with us, and is truly the Restorer of our souls.

Some of the most encouraging words, and words that bring us into reality when we try to understand the true meaning of “not being in want”, occur in verse 4.

Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me. (NIV)

Walking through the valley of the shadow of death is not my normal idea of a place where I will not be in want and where my soul is restored. But this is where reality comes in. We all have times in our lives where we face trials. Perhaps we lose our jobs or hit a financial crisis, and we wonder whether we will be homeless. Or perhaps we have a serious illness or injury and wonder if we will survive. Or perhaps our home, school, or work feels very unsafe to us. Those situations represent our valley of the shadow of death. But here we see that while we are not necessarily taken out of those very dark places, we can go through those places with confidence, because our Shepherd, the One who is trustworthy and true, the One who is both powerful and loving, is with us. He will not let any real harm befall us. It is in this trust that we find peace.

One of the popular songs on Christian radio recently (performed by Philips, Craig, and Dean, and written by Scott Krippayne) succinctly summarized this idea in the line, “Sometimes He calms the storm, and other times He calms His child”.

Sudh Shilajit is one of the key herbs viagra effects women in the Shilait ES capsules to supply your body with minerals, vitamins and nutrients in sufficient quantity. This means most people will look for any sort of abnormalities of the genital cialis no prescription secretworldchronicle.com area, which could lead to issues with erections. A relationship is just for the click to find out more now viagra without prescription name if both people are not happy with you and here are the effects of erectile dysfunction or impotence issue. A pharmaceutical firm is a company which makes a drug and launches it in the market after successful clinical trials. levitra shop uk The peace found in the valley of the shadow of death reminds me of what I consider the New Testament equivalent in Romans 8:28-39. In verse 35, we are asked, “Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword” (NIV) be able to separate us from the love of God? The answer in verses 37 to 39 is “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (NIV). We are more than conquerors in these experiences that we normally consider to be things that we would cause fear, injury, or death.

For many of us, even those who have been walking with God for a long time, the issue of truly trusting God is one that we have not completely come to grips with. All of us are challenged, however, to come to a place where we can rest in that trust. Brennan Manning, in his book Ruthless Trust, writes “Like faith and hope, trust cannot be self-generated. I cannot simply will myself to trust. What outrageous irony: the one thing that I am responsible for throughout my life I cannot generate. The only thing I need to do I cannot do… What does lie within my power is paying attention to the faithfulness of Jesus. That’s what I am asked to do; pay attention to Jesus throughout my journey, remembering his kindnesses (Ps. 103:2)” (pp 96-97).

The Psalm concludes with verses 5 and 6:

You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever. (NIV)

Verse 5 tells us some of the ways our Shepherd honors His sheep. First of all, He honors us in front of those who do not like us or respect us, by preparing a banquet for us and seating us as the guest of honor. This is brilliant imagery. One wonders whether this might be taken literally in that this could be something that happens in heaven. Or if we take it figuratively, then what this means is that on this earth, our enemies will see us honored and exalted by God. God’s blessing for us is so abundant that the Psalmist says that our cups overflow. This verse goes on to suggest that the blessings that God’s sheep receive are not just for a special occasion, but for every day of our lives. Truly we have the favor of the Lord upon us.

Of course, many of us honestly don’t feel like we are receiving God’s blessing right now. For some of us, we just need to open our eyes to the way the Lord’s goodness and love are poured out upon us already — perhaps ways that we have taken for granted. For others, we recognize that in order for the Psalmist to have collected enemies, he had to go through some rough times in order to reach the time in which he was honored by God before those enemies. Perhaps some of us are in a different season of life, but have the good times of God’s favor and blessing to look forward to.

Yet others of us who have not learned to trust God and truly put our faith in Him — those who can see only the valley of the shadow of death and not the Shepherd leading us through — these ones have not been able to step into the blessing as of yet because of fear and lack of trust. This is not meant to be a condemning word to us, but is meant to help us recognize that if we are able to take the leap of faith to truly trust, a different way of living — one of blessing and hope — lies ahead for us.

For me, the greatest privilege mentioned in this Psalm is to be able to dwell with the Lord forever. This is not simply a future expectation, but rather a present reality, as well. We are promised to have intimate proximity to the Lord every moment. We will more fully explore this concept of “dwelling” as we look at other Psalms.

The bottom line about what we should understand from the 23rd Psalm is that God is our Good Shepherd. He provides well for our needs. As we grow to trust Him — which takes place in the context of an intimate relationship between sheep and Shepherd — we will be set free from fear. This is true even in life’s darkest hours. Furthermore, our souls will be restored, allowing us to become who we were meant to be.

 

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