“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” Psalm 23:1
When I woke up early this morning, I began to reflect upon a favorite Psalm of many people. I am referring to Psalm 23. The imagery of this Psalm is distant from the experiences of modern man. To properly understand this Psalm, we need to look at it from the perspective of a Palestinian shepherd in the time of King David. In our impersonal technological world, we want to cling to the words of this Psalm because they are personal. God takes the same loving and patient care of His people as a shepherd does of his flock.
This Psalm was written by King David. I do not believe this Psalm was penned by David in his early years nor in the middle of his life. I believe these words were written by David in his later years because these are the words of a man who has lived and done much, who has sinned greatly and been forgiven greatly. David was a mature man at the time of this writing who was not only a slayer of Goliath, the devoted friend of Jonathan, a lover of music, and an able king, but he was also a fugitive, an adulterer, and a murderer. As a father he had watched his baby die and had wept when Absalom, his ungrateful son, was slain as he led a rebellion against his father. David has not left us only with beautiful thoughts, but with an honest testimony about God learned as he lived life to the fullest. Even though we are living in complex and calamitous times, the Shepherd of whom David wrote has not changed. Our challenge is that we have become too sophisticated to trust Him.
Many who love this Psalm take the words of verse one to mean, “The Lord is my Savior; and I am glad He is.” As wonderful as it is to know the Lord as our Savior, that is not what this Psalm is about. This Psalm is one of three Psalms that deal with a different aspect of the work of Christ. Psalm 22 deals with the work of Christ as our Savior when He suffered and died on the cross for our sins in the past. Psalm 23 speaks of the work of Christ as our resurrected Shepherd who is now in heaven in the present. And Psalm 24 is about the work of Christ as our Sovereign who shall triumphantly return to earth in the future. Many people who have put their trust in Christ as their Savior do not know the reality of His work as their Shepherd nor do they look forward to His return as Sovereign.
But when David sang this song of Christ as his Shepherd, he was praising the living God who enriched his daily life. He writes, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want” (23:1). The word “Lord” translates the name “YAHWEH.” Jewish people were so much in awe of this name and of the God it represented, they substituted some lesser name for it whenever it occurred in public readings of the Scriptures. When the people thought of YAHWEH, they thought of the One who causes all things to be, the God who brought the nation of Israel into existence. Yet this God who inhabits eternity is the One referred to as a “shepherd.” He is great enough to take care of all the needs of my life.
David did not say that the Lord was “a shepherd.” He said the Lord was “my shepherd.” Many people know that the Lord is a shepherd, but they really don’t know that He is their shepherd.
Who is your shepherd? Whom are you trusting to meet your daily needs? Your spouse? Your children? Your pastor? Your therapist? Your parents? A close friend? As important as these people are, they can never be the Good Shepherd of your life because they are sheep, too. We need someone else just as David did.
When David addressed the Lord as his shepherd, he was saying that he was a defenseless, dependent, dumb/foolish sheep. We also might as well admit that before God, we too, are sheep. Yet our proud hearts say, “No I am not a sheep because I can take care of myself!” But in order to experience the blessings of Psalm 23, we must humble ourselves and admit that we are sheep and we need our Good Shepherd to take care of us.
When I trust in the Lord as my shepherd, “I shall not want.” In other words I shall never be in a state of want when I am relying on the Lord as my shepherd. I will not want for anything I need. This is the key to the whole Psalm. Over the next few days we will look at what wants our Good Shepherd provides for us.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, my Good Shepherd, thank You for reminding me that I am much like a defenseless, dependent, and dumb sheep who desperately needs You to take care of me. It can be difficult for me to admit this because I like to be in control. But the more I try to be in control, the less I experience the blessings of Your loving and patient care. Please forgive me for looking to others to be my shepherd in place of You. Thank You for cleansing me of my pride. I am now eager to learn more from You of what it means to trust You as my Shepherd. In Jesus’ name. Amen.