Psalm 23 - I shall not want (3)

“We 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.” - C.H. Spurgeon



God will provide

Fear the Lord, you His holy people, for those who fear Him lack nothing. - Psalm 34:9

If God cares for us and is all powerful, then he is both willing and able to supply all of our needs. And indeed we know that in Jesus there is a 'bank of glory' sufficient for whatever we might need.
"My God will meet all of your needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus" - Philippians 4:19

This is saying that God yearns for our good; physically, mentally, spiritually - in every area of our lives. Indeed, we know that he "works all things for the good of those who love Him" [Romans 8:28].



Now but not yet

This inheritance is kept in heaven for you...
in all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while
you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.                 - 1 Peter 1:4, 6

This 'complete prosperity' is only to be realised in the new creation. But we can rest in the finality and totality of this promise of eventual restoration, and not worry or want for the things of this world as we might otherwise do. We shall not want at all in the new creation, so as we place our hope in the things unseen we can rest in this promise and truly trust God to correctly apportion our lot now also.

Christ is sufficient

My grace is sufficient for you,
for my power is made perfect in weakness                                  - 2 Corinthians 12:9

"Shall" has a note of defiance to it. Not just, "I need not want", but "I shall not want". This is not to be conditioned upon certain things going well. We do not want, irrespective of whether we have wealth, health, religious experiences, or whatever else our flesh might desire.

We shall not lack temporal things that are conducive to our spiritual flourishing, and so we need not be anxious (Matthew 10:29). Further, we shall not want spiritual things because his grace is sufficient, and in Christ our souls are secure (Hebrews 6:19). So it makes sense that David (and indeed we) can say that no matter what we go through we shall not want, because Christ is sufficient.

In fact, where we do lack and do suffer, we know this serves God's purpose for he works in our weakness, and so even in these things we have cause to rejoice (2 Corinthians 12:10).  O, would we be characterised by being content and gracious in spirit, as we trust God's sovereignty in all our lives!

Rest in Him

Though we may have less than others we are still called to rejoice.

How can we do this? Because we have found our rest in our Shepherd.

No matter how often like sheep we wander, he will patiently and lovingly guide us home again.

In all of the business and chaos of life, we find our rest in him.

But I have calmed and quietened myself,
I am like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child I am content.                  - Psalm 131:2

Psalm 23 - The Lord is my Shepherd (2)

David knows the sovereign creator of the universe as his personal carer and provider.

Jesus the lamb

It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.   - 1 Peter 1:19

It is curious that the Psalm prior to this is the "psalm of the cross".

Only after we read, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" in the first verse of Psalm 22, and call to mind the glorious atoning work of Christ displayed on the cross of Calvary, are we ready to think of God as our Shepherd.

The bitter sweet irony! Jesus can assume towards his people the office and character of a shepherd only because he first took on the role and disposition of a lamb to be slaughtered.

Emmanuel - God with us

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you - 1 Corinthians 3:16

The perfect, infinite, unchanging God of the whole universe chose the personal, intimate and involved role of a shepherd as his metaphor of choice for how he relates to us. How wonderful and perplexing a truth this is. Even though the chasm separating us and the almighty God could not be wider, God still desires intimacy with us.

Christianity is not a list of boxes to tick, or merely a set of beliefs to be held; it could scarcely be clearer here that David knew God. David's God is outrageously, unspeakably, uncomfortably imminent! As Blaise Pascal put it,

God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob,
not of philosophers and scholars.
Certainty, certainty, heartfelt, joy, peace.
God of Jesus Christ.

God of Jesus Christ.
My God and your God.


Sustained and upheld

He is before all things, and in him all things hold together    - Colossians 1:17

"the"; there is only One to whom we look as our shepherd.

And to whom do we look? To the "Lord"; the creator and ruler and sustainer and upholder and perfecter of all [Colossians 1]. If he has offered, to whom else would we look?

"is"; not, "he will be," or "he has been," or, "he might be," but he is. The present tense speaks of the certain assurance that David felt regarding the Lord being his shepherd. We too should possess this assurance, the fruits of which are a quieted soul and an obedient heart.

Intimately known

But whoever loves God is known by God                              - 1 Corinthians 8:3

"my" shows us how personal and relational this was to David. God is, indeed, the Shepherd and our Shepherd, but David chooses the more intimate and private, "my Shepherd". God here reveals himself not only as imminent, but also as actively interested in the individual.

Not only did he "knit me together in my mother's womb," [Psalm 139:13] but he never stopped being interested in me. David knew this intimacy, so how much more should we - who have seen the love of God made visible in Christ, and who have his Spirit dwelling inside of us - know and delight in this intimacy!

Suffered for

Christ suffered for our sins once for all time                          - 1 Peter 3:18

"shepherd"; before David was a king he was a shepherd, so he really meant this metaphor. His job entailed rescuing stray lambs from the mouths of lions and bears at great risk to his own safety [1 Samuel 17:34-35]. The significant role of the shepherd here is one of sacrifice, rather than authority.

In John 10:11 Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep." Our Lord has declared himself to be our protector and provider, but this role entails sacrifice and suffering. This has been made visible in the acute suffering of Christ, the man of sorrows who came to serve.

Bought with a price

You are not your own; you were bought at a price                   - 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

The book of Hosea gives a rather striking and humbling illustration of our relationship with God. It says that we are like a woman who used to be a prostitute but is rescued by a good man who marries and cares for her, who then goes back to her old ways and sells her body to prostitution again. God is like the faithful husband who goes out and finds her in the sex slave industry again, buys her back for the full price, and calls her his wife again.

Like sheep we are an object of property; we have been bought at a price. And what a price; bought with the precious blood of Christ. How perplexing and wondrous that Jesus would consider us worth dying for. Yet he did, as we saw above, not because of our inherent worth but because he is in the business of restoration and of love. His love extended towards us is infinite and totally unconditional.

Not because of who I am
 but because of what you've done
Not because of what I've done
 but because of who you are                  - Casting Crowns



Safe in the fold

Like sheep we are prone to wandering away from our homes. Though we find our rest and our treasure and our identity in Christ, O how often do we leave it for some temporary pleasure - like prostitutes heading back to their old place of work. Praise God that he is our shepherd; again and again going after us, leading us back home in his arms, and nurturing us in loving obedience towards him. 

Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.

 Take my heart Lord, take and seal it. Seal it for Thy courts above.                   - C.L. Smith

Psalm 23 - David's heavenly pastoral (1)

2 2 

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
3 He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake.

4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for you are with me;
your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;my cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and mercy
shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Psalm 23 is surely the most well known of the biblical psalms.
It calms the anxious, releases the burdened;
rejuvenates the sorrowful, and brings hope to the despairing.
Its poetry is gentle in approach, and yet radiant in content.

After reading it I always feel restored in soul and refreshed in mind.
What better psalm, then, to dwell on and let soak into our souls.

This is what I will be doing over the next couple of weeks;
going through the psalm phrase my phrase and blogging my thoughts each day.

Of course the real magic behind this psalm lies not in the fact that it is well composed
and full of beautiful imagery, but that what it points to is true!

Far more important than knowing the psalm is to know the Shepherd.

My prayer is that these posts will make us more fully realise our need to know the Good Shepherd, and that we will be compelled to respond by (re)committing our lives to Him!

God bless,
Jeff


But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.