Today’s is perhaps the most treasured of all the Psalms, well worth memorizing, absorbing, regularly reflecting on – Psalm 23 – `The LORD is my Shepherd`…
So then: **My** shepherd! Over and over again in this wonderful psalm it’s worth pausing to digest and reflect… What does it means for me, this week, this month, to know I have a — `shepherd`? One who looks out for me, one who is enormously loving, enormously wise, enormously strong… Indeed, remarkably, a shepherd who is in fact the Lord, Lord of all?! Thankyou Lord…!
Well, one thing that follows from that is this certainty: `I shall not be in want.` Which doesn’t mean I will have anything I fancy, but it is a promise that, as Psalm 34 says, `They that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.` This psalm isn’t naïve; the shepherd imagery may imply that David wrote it when he was a young shepherd himself, when he knew what it was like at times of family celebration like 1 Samuel 16 to be left out alone on the hillside, where (as we know) the lions and bears were. And it faces the reality of journeys through the valley of the shadow of death, and the definite possibility of attack by enemies. And yet he, we, have a Shepherd, one who sees the big picture; and as we saw in Isaiah, the God who loves us so colossally will not let us go through any of these things unless there is some enormous benefit… So, `They that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing…`
Then: `He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.` Again, certainty: there will be green pastures; quiet waters are coming. And: `He refreshes my soul.` He, the Lord, does that; another sentence to pause and absorb. George Muller wrote very practically about it, `It is the delight of our Lord Jesus Christ to refresh us spiritually. If at any time we are cast down, what we should do is remind the Lord that he has been given “an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary” (Isa 50:4). I advise all my beloved brethren and sisters in Christ to make more use than they have yet done of this blessed word… Open your heart to the precious Jesus, as your friend. I have done it for many a long year, and it is just this which upholds me, which makes me a happy man. I tell Him everything, I entreat Him to speak to me a word in season, that the weariness may pass away, and that I may be refreshed spiritually. And I find Him ever ready to help!`
And then another very practical certainty: `He leads me!… He guides me along the right paths, for His name’s sake.` He does; He genuinely will! A very, very important verse as we face any troubling decisions in the coming weeks or months; let’s take it before God with certainty, and into our hearts with equal certainty; if we’re seeking His purpose we surely will not go astray; He does guide, He will lead! So we can ask Him confidently for wisdom (James 1:5), and then make our decision with faith and assurance…
Then next: `Even though I walk through the valley of the [deep] shadow of death, I will fear no evil` – even though we indeed have enemies, powerful and unpleasant ones (v5) – we need fear none (as Jesus said in the sermon on the mount, `Don’t worry about your life!`) Our Shepherd God is infinite and infinitely strong; and no other power or probability, human or supernatural, is remotely comparable…
Why? `For You` – no impersonal power, but You, You who I know, You who knows me – `are with me; Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.` That’s the rod for powerful protection (cf Psalm 2:9), plus the staff for correction, the discipline that may not always feel great but actually ensures we stay on track (look at Hebrews 12:4-12)…
And then: `You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies!` The demons look on but they are utterly powerless, because `You`, the Lord, are `the Lord mighty in battle!` as the next psalm says! And `You anoint my head with oil` – a mark of the Host’s `respect and reverence` for his guest, says George Muller (a remarkable thought if he’s right); `My cup overflows!`
Then, following on that `overflows`, the culminating verse: `Surely Your goodness and love will!` – believe it! – `follow me all the days of my life` (including the apparently bad ones); these two things, His goodness and love, will follow us around – like in the police drama NCIS that I’ve been watching this week, two very strong characters just out of sight behind us, protecting us even though we can’t see them…
`And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever!` Hercus notes that these are the words of a homeless boy, child of a tragically divided home. But why are we sure of this promise? Because thanks to Jesus and His cross, we have purified hands and hearts, and so will indeed be able to `stand in His holy place`, as the next psalm says. Therefore – yes, let’s put our imaginations to work – we will each be `forever in the house of the Lord`: swimming in infinite joy, infinite love, colossal glory actually beyond all our imagination…
`Exceedingly great and precious promises`, says Peter of these things! And George Muller again: `My affectionate counsel to my beloved fellow-believer is to seek more and more to ponder all this, with application to your own hearts, so that your joy may increase more abundantly. And what will come of it at last? You will be able say with the Psalmist, “My cup overflows”, I am so happy I can scarcely bear it… My cup overflows!` That’s what the future holds for every one of us who follows the Lord our Shepherd…!
