My Shepherd Part 1
Our God is Jehovah Raah-the lord my shepherd. Jesus is referred as the good shepherd who gives his life for you, the sheep. And he knows you and you will know him (see John 10:11, 14)
PART 1: With Him there is no lack
With the lord as your Shepherd, you will and suppose to experience Him for your self that truly when you have him, you have no lack of anything
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want (Psalm 23:1)
· A shepherd tends. Leads, guides, cherishes, feeds and protects a flock.
· David lived in an intimate love with God. That relationship grew out of a Life long practice of worship, prayer and quiet contemplation, which David first learnt during long nights in the fields near Bethlehem
· The bond between the shepherd and his sheep which David paints in the 23rd psalm is a beautiful picture of love and trust that exist between the Lord and those whom he draws to himself.
· David states the nature of the relationship clearly and plainly. The Lord is his Shepherd; there is no doubt or uncertainty here. He who has been a shepherd himself now rote from the perspective of a sheep.
· In natural, sheep are totally dependent on their shepherd for food, water, shelter, safety- even life itself. Basically, they are helpless, needy creatures.
· In the spiritual, we humans are just as helpless and dependent on God as sheep are on their shepherd. In many ways, we are also just as needy, because many of us so often fail to recognize or acknowledge how dependent we are on the Lord for everything.
· “The Lord is my shepherd” is also a statement of ownership. If the lord is our shepherd, that means He owns us. He has bought us with a price “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep” (John 10:11).
· He bought us with his own blood; we now belong to him. This fact of divine ownership was a source of grate joy and confidence for David, just as it should be for us.
· No man has their right to consider himself the lord’s sheep unless his nature has been renewed, for the scriptural description of unconverted men does not picture them as sheep, but as wolves or goats(Luke 10:3; Acts 20:29). A sheep is an object of property, not a wild animal.
· 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 a tone of confidence about this sentence. There is no “if” nor “but”, nor even “I hope so” but he says “ the lord is my shepherd” The spirit Himself Bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God (Romans 8:16)
· When we are in fellowship with God and commune with him spirit to Spirit that “the Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God”
· David spoke with a strong sense of Pride and devotion and admiration. It was as though he literally boasted aloud “look at who my shepherd is-my owner- my manager! The Lord is!” David Knew that with The Lord as his shepherd, his every need would be provided, so he could proclaim with confidences “I shall not want” Oh fear the Lord, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear him. The Young lions lack and suffer hunger; but those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing (psalm 34:9-10)
· Whether temporal or spiritual, every need we have will be supplied by our shepherd the great lover of our soul, if we trust.
· The word wants here a broader meaning than simply not lacking anything. It also carries the idea of being utterly contented in the Good Shepherd’s care and as a result of that not craving or desiring anything more...
· Our shepherd supplies more than just our daily needs. He supplies us with himself. When the Lord is our shepherd, he fills us with his presence and satisfies our deepest longing and greatest yearning., so that we no longer need or want anyone but him
· He fills the God shaped Vacuum in each of us that only he can fill. When we have him, we have everything. There is nothing more we need. No one else and nothing else can satisfy us completely, body, soul and spirit, the way He can.
· The further we go in Christ, the simpler we become, and the clearer our focus that Jesus is all. The deepest yet simplest truth in all of scripture is Jesus Christ crucified and risen.
· That says it all. He is it. Jesus is our everything, In Him we are complete.
· It is hard for us to understand that or truly believe it- until we have learned to separate ourselves mentally and emotionally from the attractions and distraction of the world.
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