Psalm
23 (KJV)
The
Lord is my shepherd; I shall not
want.
2 He maketh me
to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
4 Yea, 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.
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6 Surely 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 memorized Psalm 23 as a
child. It was so long ago that all we
had was the King James Version. (My kids
figure this was sometime during the English Civil War when the KJV was still new!) I still repeat it in the King James. I have quoted it hundreds, maybe thousands,
of times in my life. How about you? The same?
The picture above is the exact
picture that hung in my Sunday School class when I was that memorizing child. I’ve see that thousands of times too. Very comforting.
When I think about the psalm I think
about blessings. I will never lack any
necessity. God will provide food and
drink. He will encourage me and guide me
in his ways. He will keep me safe from
attackers. He will seat me at his banquet
where I will feast with him forever.
Yes, the psalm is definitely about blessings.
The New Testament is full of
shepherding word pictures. The best
known of them all is Jesus the Good Shepherd.
In John 10 Jesus compares himself, the Good Shepherd, with the hired men
who run at the first sign of danger. He
knows his sheep and his sheep know him.
He calls his sheep to follow him and he lays down his life for his
sheep. There is the beloved parable
about the shepherd who leaves his ninety-nine sheep in order to go looking for
his one lost sheep. What a blessing it
is that I can count myself among the Lord’s sheep and trust in him for all
these blessings!
But that isn’t what I was thinking
about. I was praying through Psalm 23
recently and there was a clang against my brain that pointed out something to
me I had never before considered. I know I am one of the Lord’s sheep…but how did I become part of that
flock? How did he become my shepherd? In
all my reading in the Bible I never saw a reference anywhere that talks about
the sheep choosing their
shepherds! Sheep don’t choose. They only follow the shepherd to whom they
belong! How did I net end up in another
flock?
Once again I was overwhelmed by the
grace of God! He chose me to be part of his flock!
His Son, the Good Shepherd, laid down his life for me and paid the price
to own me as his sheep. He made me one
of his own apart from any value or beauty in me. Just the fact that I can say, “The Lord is my
Shepherd, I shall not want,” proves to me again the sovereign grace of God.
