The 23rd Psalm is one of the most recognized passages in the Bible. As a child, I liked this Psalm because it had my mom’s name in it, or at least that’s what I thought. It was a comfort to know that Shirley, along with goodness and mercy, would always be there for me.
Check out the very first verse, which is short but packed with incredible truth:
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. (Psalm 23:1 ESV).
I also like the way the NLT phrases this verse: The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need.
If we stop and think about it long enough, we’ll be overwhelmed by the realization that God, the all-knowing, all-powerful Creator of all that exists, is our shepherd. My shepherd. Your shepherd.
Jesus made sure we understood this by referring to himself as the Good Shepherd:
“I am the Good Shepherd.” (John 10:11)
He couldn’t have made it more clear than that. The author of Hebrews calls him “the great shepherd of the sheep” (Hebrews 13:20). Peter calls him “the chief Shepherd” (1 Peter 5:4).
Isaiah has this to say:
He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young. (Isaiah 40:11)
It’s almost as if God is trying to get the point across to us that he is our shepherd.
The second part of Psalm 23:1 is just as important as the first — “I shall not want.” It’s important to note that when David, who knew all about herding sheep, wrote this Psalm, he didn’t begin by asking God for anything. Instead, he simply stated fact. God is our shepherd, and he provides us with everything we need. That’s amazing! What we tend to worry about the most is tomorrow, but God has already taken care of tomorrow. Long before you even realize that you need something, he’s already provided for it.
I have to admit, I’ve never been around sheep. All I know is that they spend the day walking around eating grass, and occasionally they get sheared. They don’t have any natural methods of defending themselves and they’re not the brightest crayons in the animal kingdom box. They need to be taken care of.
So do I. I am completely dependent on my shepherd for everything. I can’t do this on my own. None of us can. But we don’t have to. Our shepherd loves us, guides us, protects us, corrects us when we need it, and provides for us so that we “have all that we need.”
Maybe sometimes you feel like God has forgotten about you. Do you ever think that he’s so busy dealing with the really big problems or helping the really important people that he’s lost track of you and your needs?
Listen to these words of Jesus:
“Not even a sparrow, worth only half a penny, can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to him than a whole flock of sparrows.” (Matthew 10:29-31 NLT)
I read a story once about a little boy who was walking with his mom. They came upon a dead sparrow on the sidewalk. He asked his mom, “What happened to the bird?” The mom replied, “Well, he died and went to heaven.” The little boy then asked, “Why did God throw him back down here?”
The fact is that God cares about you a lot more than he cares about dinky little birds. Even when God says no to you, it’s because he loves you and wants what’s best for you.
There are a lot of things in life that I want. I want to be taller and thinner and a little younger. I want my hair to come back and look like it did in my early 20s. I’d love to have to blow dry my wings just one more time. There are a lot of things that I want, but they are not necessarily what I need.
I think many of us who live in the United States have a difficult time recognizing the difference between what we want and what we need. Too often, what we think of as needs are actually wants. The fact is that there are many Christians in this world who will go to bed tonight not sure where there needs will come from tomorrow. But our shepherd already has a plan in place to provide.
Sometimes when we don’t get everything we ask for from God, when he doesn’t do for us what we want him to do, we turn to him in frustration and ask, “Why didn’t you give me what I needed?” The answer is that you did get exactly what you needed. We get exactly what God wants us to have, every single time, and when things make no sense, we are to trust him enough to know that he always does what is best, whether or not it makes sense to us.
Our shepherd provides.
Every single time.