1. The Lord is my shepherd. It should be the subject of grateful admiration that the great God
allows himself to be compared to anything which will set forth his great love
and care for his own people. David had himself been a keeper of sheep, and
understood both the needs of the sheep and the many cares of a shepherd. He
compares himself to a creature weak, defenseless, and foolish, and he takes God
to be his Provider, Preserver, Director, and indeed his everything. No one has
a right to consider himself the Lord’s sheep unless his nature has been
renewed, for the scriptural description of the unconverted does not picture
them as sheep but as wolves or goats. A sheep is an object of property, not a
wild animal; its owner set great store by it, and frequently it is bought with
a great price. It is well to know, as certainly as David did, that we belong to
the Lord. There is no “if” or “but” or even “I hope so” in this sentence. We must cultivate the spirit of assured dependence
on our Heavenly Father. The sweetest word of the whole is my. He does
not say, “The Lord is the shepherd of the world at large, and leadeth forth the
multitude as his flock.” If he
is a Shepherd to no one else, he is a Shepherd to me. The words are in
the present tense. Whatever the believer’s position, he is under the pastoral
care of Jehovah now. I shall not want. These positive words are a sort
of inference from the first statement. When the Lord is my Shepherd he is able
to supply my needs, and he is certainly willing to do so, for his heart is full
of love. I shall not lack temporal things: does he not feed the ravens,
and cause the lilies to grow? How, then, can he leave his children to starve? I
shall not lack spiritual things; I know that his grace will be
sufficient for me. I may not possess all that I wish for, but I shall not lack.
Others may, far wealthier and wiser than I, but I shall not. “The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek
the Lord shall not want any good thing.” It is not only “I do not
want,” but “I shall not want.” Come
what may, if famine should devastate the land, or calamity destroy the city, “I shall not want.” Old age
with its feebleness will not bring me any lack, and even death with its gloom
will not find me destitute. I have all things and abound; not because I have a
good store of money in the bank, not because I have skill and wit with which to
win my bread, but because The Lord is my Shepherd. The wicked always want, but the righteous never; a sinner’s
heart is far from satisfaction, but a gracious spirit dwells in the palace of
content.
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