The Lord is my Shepherd

"The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want,

He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me 

beside still waters, He restores my soul."

Psalm 23: 1-2

     The 23rd Psalm has been in my heart since I was 9 years old.  It was September of my third-grade year.  I had to memorize Psalm 23 to get my RSV Bible in Sunday school.  My first Bible, though not my last, is still going strong.  Although I use a different one these days, that little Bible still represents a time of my first faith lessons.   I carried that little Bible obediently to every Sunday school class.  Its pages are wrinkled and tattered.  The binding is cracked.  As I picked it up to write this devotion, the silk ribbon bookmark was in place, Psalm 23.   In my 9-year-old handwriting, the words are carefully underlined, no highlighters back then.  As I read the words, peace flows over me.

    The Lord is my shepherd.  In my recent study of Ezekiel, chapter 34 talks about the shepherds of Israel not watching over the flock.  God is telling Ezekiel to prophesy against the shepherds because they had not taken care of the flock.  They had not fed them, or taken care of the weak and sick ones. They had let the lost wander with no effort to retrieve them back to the flock.  The sheep were scattered over the face of the earth.  The shepherds allowed the sheep to become prey and food for all the wild beasts.  But God says He, Himself, will search for His sheep and rescue them and return them to the fold from the scattered places.  

     We are the sheep.  The shepherds are the leaders of the church or in Ezekiel's time of Israel.  Some of these leaders have let us down.  They have shown they are human.  They have been placed on too high of a pedestal when they shouldn't be on one anyway.  They've ignored the lost, the weak, and the sick.  They have left the sheep to wander among the wolves and other beasts that seek to devour.  BUT God is there calling His sheep to Himself.  He is bringing the sheep to Him.  

      The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.  I will be content.  I will not lack.   He makes me lie down in green pastures, safely guarded against the enemy. There is no reason to worry.  He is there keeping watch.   He leads me beside still waters.  Water that will refresh my weary self.  He restores my soul, my aching dry soul.  He fills it with the living water and brings healing and renewal.  The Lord is my Shepherd.   I need nothing or no one else.  He is the Good Shepherd.  I will dwell in His house forever.

"I am the Good Shepherd..."

John 10:11