IF The Lord Is Your Shepherd …
(Is The Lord Your Shepherd? Part II)
1The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. 3He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 4Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. 5Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. 6Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. (Psalms 23 KJV)
In my last post on this passage, we looked at the first five words that King David wrote: “The Lord is my shepherd” and discussed how they could be the most important words you could ever consider within your lifetime. Today I’d like to look at the remaining phrases from the last four words in verse 1 through verses 2 – 6. However, you cannot make sense of the remainder of the passage unless you have first dealt with those beginning five words. Unless The Lord is your shepherd, then nothing else can follow. You must first have a relationship with the shepherd (who is The Lord) [and He must have a relationship with you] for the rest of the passage to have any meaning in your life. This is because what follows are specifically for the sheep that belong to The Shepherd (who is The Lord). We looked at a key passage in my previous post where Jesus Christ (Yeshua) explained this:
24Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. 25Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me. 26But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. 27My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. (John 10:24-28)
Jesus Christ says very plainly “But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep” and “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me“. You must first be a sheep of the shepherd (The Lord) before you may hear His voice and follow Him. Sheep that do not belong to the shepherd will neither hear His voice nor believe in him. However, if you truly are the Shepherd’s sheep, then there are some things you will experience from that relationship. In my last post we used this structural diagram to identify the things that King David enumerates in Psalms 23 resulting from a relationship with the Shepherd:
|1The Lord
| |is my shepherd;
| | |I shall not want. (2He)
| |maketh me to lie down in green pastures: (He)
| |leadeth me beside the still waters. (3He)
| |restoreth my soul: (He)
| |leadeth me in the paths of righteousness
| |for his name's sake.
|4Yea, though I walk through the valley
| |of the shadow of death,
| |I will fear no evil: (for thou)
| |art with me;
| |thy rod and thy staff
| |they comfort me. (5Thou)
| |preparest a table before me
| |in the presence of mine enemies: (Thou)
| |anointest my head with oil;
| |my cup runneth over.
| |6Surely goodness and mercy
| |shall follow me
| |all the days of my life:
| |and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
I shall not want … or I shall have no needs. The phrase in the Hebrew reads:
Given that the Hebrew is written right-to-left an exact transliteration in the English language would read: “nothing lack I shall” which in our modern-day vernacular might read “I shall lack nothing” or even “nothing shall I lack“. When you lack (are missing) something vital in your life, then you have a want … a need. And King David tells us that when The Lord is our shepherd, we will have no needs. Nothing will be missing in our lives. But what is King David saying here? We all have wants [needs] in our lives, right? Let’s consider some popular wants in our society today.
Sticking with my previous analogies from my first post on this passage, consider the many in our society today who desperately want [need] a different President of the United States of America. On both sides of the political spectrum. Special rallies are held and people proclaim No Kings! And yet all of us sheep tend to ignore the Biblical fact that very plainly states that it is The Shepherd that establishes the kings (and queens) in our lives:
20Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his: 21And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding: 22He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him.
The sheep (those who at least claim The Lord is their Shepherd) want [need] a sheep king (or sheep queen) (President, Leader, Government) and The Shepherd (God, The Lord, Yahweh, Jehovah, Jesus Christ, Yeshua) removes kings (queens) (Presidents, Leaders, Governments) from their thrones and he places kings (queens) (Presidents, Leaders, Governments) upon their thrones. And then the sheep (who still claim The Lord is their Shepherd) immediately protest with No Kings! You cannot deny the sheer irony of what is going on here. Of course, if you do not claim The Lord as your Shepherd, then there is no conflict in your protests. The only thing you need to resolve is why are all the herds of sheep mixed up?
It does not matter what object of life you try to replace want [need] with, the outcome is always the same. There are those that may desire great wealth, those who say they would be satisfied with just a little wealth. Those who desire love, power, control, special abilities, or even those who simply desire to empty themselves of all desires. In the end, King David is telling us that because The Lord is his Shepherd the outcome is he shall lack nothing. The sheep can desire, complain, fight, campaign, petition, convive, scheme, persuade, steal, or pursue any other method of fulfilling their own destiny … but … IF The Lord really and truly IS your Shepherd then you shall lack for nothing. It is a promise from God’s word. When King David says: “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.” Here is what we may discern from his statement:
King David is telling us that The Lord is our provider. It is The Shepherd that knows what the sheep want [and need] even more than the sheep know. And the Shepherd provides [meets] those wants [needs] in the lives of the sheep. Because that is the foremost and primary job of The Shepherd. To watch over and provide for the sheep. The Shepherd does not ask the sheep what they want [need] (or what they lack – if you want to stick with the Hebrew vernacular). The Shepherd already knows what the sheep want [need] and The Shepherd provides for these things out of His own resources and as He sees fit.
It is when the sheep go out on their own and try to fulfill their wants [and needs] through their own methods and strength, that chaos ensues. It is when the sheep reject The Shepherd’s provisions that there is strife in the midst of the flock. When sheep pick and choose what they want to believe; when sheep reinterpret the word of The Shepherd to align with their world view, then they will protest what God has provided for them, create strife and anguish amongst others, and in doing so will move themselves out from under The Shepherd’s protection.
IF [really and truly] The Lord is your Shepherd today, then you shall lack nothing because The Shepherd knows the wants [needs] of the sheep and He provides all for them. And I know there are some out there today that are screaming at their screens (hoping I’ll hear – just leave a comment. I’ll get it.) that I cannot possibly believe that and that it cannot be that simple. Well, the answer is: I believe that with all my heart, and all my mind, and all my strength. If it were not that simple, then God would have used more words and more complex structures to explain it to us. I believe the problem lies with the sheep. The sheep want to reject outright that God placed the rulers over us that He sees fit. The sheep want to protest those that God sets upon the throne. They chant “Not my king!” or “No kings!“. And then the sheep wonder why they go hungry. Or why they get no rest in their beds. They wonder why the storms blow into their homes and why the cold rain falls on their heads. The sheep cry out to The Shepherd, but The Shepherd does not answer them. Not because The Shepherd does not hear them, but because the sheep do not hear The Shepherd.
The Lord wants to be your Shepherd today. And you can make that happen by believing that Jesus Christ – Yeshua, as our Jewish brethren would tell us – is the Son of God. Jesus Christ is one with God the Father. That God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit comprise the entity of the one true God. Jehovah God. The God of Abraham, Jacob, and Issac. And that Jesus Christ laid aside His deity in Heaven to come to Earth to die for the sins of the world. And that He was unjustly accused, that He was beaten and scourged, that he was nailed to a cross between two thieves. He died and was buried in a tomb for three days. But on the third day as women from the town came to place spices in the tomb. He was not there. And angel of The Lord proclaimed that He had risen was no longer in the grave. And that today He sits as the right hand of God the Father in Heaven pleading our case before Him.
I have heard every excuse, belief, theory, modification, alteration, compulsion, rejection, reason, fantasy, and perceived reality that would match and support your world view today. You may be a theist in your world view. However, your god is Allah, or Buddha, or Mohamad. You may be an atheist in your world view and there is no god. You cannot possibly accept a god because then you would have to acknowledge a creator (and yourself as creation). You may be agnostic in your world view and perhaps you just do not care. You may be sitting on the fence, or you may be searching amongst the religions of the world.
Whatever it is or wherever you are at, you cannot change The Truth, The Life, and The Way found in the Bible. You cannot change the wisdom found in Psalms 23. And you cannot change the choice that God, the creator of all the Universe, seen and unseen, has placed before you. You cannot change these things even if you wish them to be so in your own heart and mind. Jesus Christ told Nicodemus:
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16 KJV)
And King David shows us that The Lord has already paid the price for the sins of the world but is waiting for you to place your belief in Him in order for Him to be your Shepherd. The Shepherd offers eternal life that lacks in nothing. However, Faith is required on your part. In order for Jesus Christ to be your Shepherd, you need to make yourself His sheep.
(We will continue with Psalms 23 in my next post)
