The Lord Is My Shepherd

The Lord Is My Shepherd

Psalm 23:1 The Lord Is my Shepherd, I shall not want.

I'll bet most of you could recite this Scripture passage from memory; maybe not word for word, but the gist of it, at least. How many of you know can tell me what Psalm 23 means to you? How 'bout just the beginning of it? What is the significance of 'The Lord Is my Shepherd'?

The Word of God is not easy reading and should never be taken at face value. Most people read into the Scriptures what they want The Word of God to say to them, not the other way around. Scripture is here for us to hear God speaking to us personally. Your Bible is an open letter from God to you. Some of it is historical, as in the events taking place have already happened. Some of it is prophetic, meaning these events have yet to happen. But the reasons any of these events take place is still current. That is why your Bible should be read daily, expounded at least weekly in God's house by the preacher, and studied seriously by you and I.

Jehovah-Rohi – The Lord Is my Shepherd.

 Before we even get to the personalization of the verse, the word 'my', we see that it begins with 'The Lord', acknowledging there is only one God. Exodus 20 gives us the layout of the Ten Commandments and this is the statement made by God in the first commandment: IAM THE LORD THY GOD. When Moses asked God who He was and what He should refer to Him as when he was to tell the people that their God would be delivering them, God's response was “IAMWHOIAM”. I Chronicles 17:20 “O LORD, there is none like Thee, neither is there any God beside Thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears.”

The Lord Is. In Exodus 6:3 we learn for the first time that one of God's Name's is JEHOVAH, meaning I AM THE LORD. Always was, always will be; God does not sleep, nor will He ever die. God is eternal. God is life. God is love. God is all things good and wonderful; strong and mighty; faithful and true. And as we study together, we will learn many more of God's attributes: who He is, what He does, where He is, why He cares. And all of that is in Psalm 23.

What does a shepherd do? In this day of technology and machinery, so much of farm and rural life has disappeared in our country that the concept of animal husbandry is unique to many. But a shepherd is needful to maintain the sheep's life. You know why? Sheep are dumb. And not figuratively either: literally dumb. 

 If a sheep falls over in the course of its journey, or in the corral, it will remain that way until it dies; unless someone, like a good shepherd, picks it up, turns it right side up, and helps it to stand upright to continue on its way.

  Sheep wander off, always looking for something to nibble on, without watching where they are going. They fall of cliffs, get stuck in brambles or fences, get eaten by wild animals, or stolen.

 Sheep need to have those woolly coats they grow groomed and sheared off. With their small heads and necks, they do not have the ability, like most animals, to groom themselves; nor the does the wool just gradually shed, like cats or dogs or even snakes. The shepherd must take good care of his flock, or he will lose it to diseases, also.

The Lord Is my Shepherd. My Shepherd. These five words acknowledge that I not only need a shepherd, but that I have chosen The Lord as my Shepherd. It is a relationship born of love. He loves me and has chosen me to be in His flock. I love Him and I surrender myself to His care, knowing that The Lord my Shepherd will watch out for my best interests because He loves me.  

 The Lord Is My Shepherd. And always will be. He is a current God. Once the repentant heart truly seeks to have his or her sins forgiven and receives forgiveness from God, God FORGETS those sins. God does not remember your past. He does not throw it in your face to remind you of how sinful you are: that is what Satan does. He accuses us over and over again, trying to intimidate us and make us turn away from our Shepherd, leave of our own accord. Go through fences, fall off cliffs, stumble and fall, stand alone. He is the wolf in sheep's clothing, who infiltrates the churches and lures people away from the whole truth of God's Word by twisting and using God's Word for his own selfish interests. He will be punished. Don't let his punishment be yours. Stay near God and His Word.  

 There are many religions but there is only one God, and He is not in all of them. We read in John 4:1-30, of Jesus speaking to the woman He met at the well, where He had gone to get a drink of water. Which He never got, but she got to not only meet Jesus, but believe Jesus when He spoke with her. I tell you this, because in verses 21-24, He tells her how to worship God that God might receive her worship. Do you understand that not every person who says they are worshiping God worships God? Only the people who worship God the way God wants to be worshiped are worshiping God. 

Verse 22: You worship you know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. Verse 23: But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship The Father in Spirit and in Truth: for The Father seeks such to worship Him.

Verse 24: God is Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.

 John 3:5 Jesus answered (Nicodemus), “Truly, truly, I say to you, Except a man be born of water and of The Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” Romans 10:9-10 tells us “That if we confess with our mouths (speak it out loud) The Lord Jesus, and shall believe in our hearts that God has raised Him from the dead, we shall be saved. For with the heart we believe unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” 

John 14:6 Jesus says, "I am The Way, The Truth, and The Life: no one comes to The Father but by Me."

Acts 1:14 says the followers of Jesus gathered together in prayer and supplications to receive The Promise of God, The Comforter, The Holy Ghost. Acts 2:4 “And they were all filled with The Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues (languages), as The Spirit gave them utterance.” I Corinthians 3:16 “Do you not know that your body is the temple of God, and that The Spirit of God lives in you? If any one defiles the temple of God, him or her shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, and you are that temple.”  

When we believe that Jesus Christ is our Savior and our hope of eternal life through His resurrection from the dead, we become born again, born anew, born of Spirit. For it is the Spirit of God who draws us near to God, who calls us to belong to God through Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son. The Son God sent to save the world from being punished for their sins, their trespasses against God, their iniquities and transgressions. Our sins. Our trespass. Our iniquities. Our transgressions. Once I was a sinner lost in sin and the darkness of a sinful nature. But when I repented of my sins and turned away from such, God forgave me and brought me into His family. I became a born-again Christian. I am not perfect; occasionally sin rears its ugly head and I must repent of that sin, receive forgiveness and move on, growing closer to God and becoming more like my Shepherd every day.

Though the age of a person varies when they believe in Jesus Christ for salvation, now that we have been born-again by The Spirit we are young in Spirit and need to learn and grow in and on God's Holy Word. We need The Holy Spirit to guide us, be ever near us.  The steps of growth we take as children and adults, are mirrored in our new relationship with God. Now that we are His children we need to learn how to live this new life in Christ. For this we truly need The Holy Spirit of God to teach us God's ways and God's wills for and in our lives.

 When we seek what is referred to as 'the baptism of The Holy Spirit', it is from a desire to know God dearly and see Him with clearer sight, Spiritual sight. For it is only through The Holy Spirit, The Comforter, living in us, that we are able to draw much more from God's Word than is printed in our Bibles. We need to study with understanding, retain with greater memory, and boldly be able to speak God's Word to the rest of the world that is still lost in sin. We need The Spirit to lead us, to guide us, to teach us The Word of God. Then we will know the Truth of God's Word and be able to discern the lies and deceits that are uttered by the wolves in sheep's clothing.

 The Lord IS My Shepherd I am a sheep that knows my Shepherd's voice. All other voices are ignorant and blasphemous of and against my Shepherd. I still need Him to stand me upright, but no longer do I leave the safety and sanctuary of the flock who stay near The Shepherd.

Until next time, be safe and saved.