In late May of this year, I published a study titled “Dinosaur Age”. This study began with the explanation that I was sharing it in an audience the median age of 85 at the assisted living facility my Mom resides at. The sweetest blessings have come from that time. You have to picture individuals slowly entering a room using a cane, walker or wheelchair. Most of them, beautiful white hair the color of snow, thin wire rimmed glasses and adorable smiles (albeit with some teeth missing). The best part was the desire for encouragement in God’s word. It is my privilege to have been asked to continue a study once a month at this facility. So as I spoke with my Mom about what might be a good topic to concentrate on, she suggested that they all have the common need to continue to be useful even with bodies that don’t function quite right anymore. We started our monthly study in Psalm 23, last month and had an encouraging time looking at scripture that many of them were familiar with in their remembrance of hearing the words. I am greatly blessed by remembering our Lord as our Shepherd. I pray you are blessed also!
His Care.
Truth – God is the Author and Giver of our physical bodies.
Psalm 23:1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
God is the Lord. Jehovah – the Self-Existent One, the Eternal One.
This is important to understand in order to accept the truth that God can do anything He wants. God is eternal, meaning He has always been in existence, even before time began. There is no one other than God who is able to claim this truth.
God existed before creation. He is the author of all creation. Therefore, He has license to do what He wants with His creation. Consider. If I make something – a quilt, a cake, or even plan a party – I am the one who has the right to do it the way I think is best. Usually, I even have a plan in my mind of how it will turn out.
God made us, therefore, He has the right to do with our lives what He deems best. Well then, we might ask, why would He give me a body that is falling apart, or the aches and pains of getting older?
Truth – God is our Shepherd.
What does a shepherd do? A shepherd feeds, guides, and protects. A shepherd tends a flock, watches over it, takes care of it, keeps it from harm, and leads it to green pastures where there is plenty of nourishment. God, as our Shepherd, cares for us and attends to all our needs. He leads us to safety and even draws us back when we wander. Because we’re talking about God as our Shepherd, we must define who the flock is. The flock is everyone who has truly repented of sin and follows God in obedience, having accepted the promise of eternal life given by grace through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. These are God’s children, the flock, His sheep.
It is noteworthy that this Psalm follows Psalm 22, commonly referred to as “The Psalm of the Cross”, which is full of lamenting over what looks like the lack of God’s answer to David’s prayers. The Psalmist begins verse one of Psalm 22 with a repeat of the words spoken by Jesus in His last hours on the cross, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” It is necessary to recall here that it is the shed blood and suffering of Jesus which allows us to have a relationship with God so that we are even able to say “The Lord is my Shepherd”. God does allow His children to suffer but ultimately it is for their good and His glory.
Consider. When do you truly feel the need to prostrate yourself before the Lord? Is it when everything is going well or when you are ‘at the end of your rope’? When we feel strong in ourselves it is easy for us to forget we require a Shepherd. We then depend upon our own strength and wisdom which is sorely lacking. Weakness confirms our need to hold the Savior’s outstretched hand.
Joh 10:11-15 I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hireling, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, beholds the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep, and flees, and the wolf snatches them, and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hireling, and is not concerned about the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd; and I know My own, and My own know Me, 15 even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.
Isa 40:11 Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, In His arm He will gather the lambs, and carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes.
Eze 34:11-12 For thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. 12 As a shepherd cares for his herd in the day when he is among his scattered sheep, so I will care for My sheep and will deliver them from all the places to which they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day.
God will protect and provide for His children. We can have confidence in His care here on earth and forever in heaven. Psalm 23 is full of the comforts offered to God’s children as His sheep. Notice the Psalmist, David, refers to God as ‘my shepherd’. This denotes a personal relationship with him.
Consider. You wouldn’t introduce someone as ‘my dad’ if indeed he was just an acquaintance. So, there is a criteria for us to be able to call God our Shepherd. We must acknowledge Him as our heavenly Father and accept the gift of His Son’s payment for our sins. Only then can we gain the confidence of His grace towards us and His care for us.
Ps 79:13 So we Thy people and the sheep of Thy pasture will give thanks to Thee forever; to all generations we will tell of Thy praise.
Joh 10:27-30 "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; 28 and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand. 29 "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. 30 "I and the Father are one."
1Pe 2:25 For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.
Look at how God is described in the above verse, “the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls”. Think of what those words mean. First, we have God as our Shepherd, and His continual care for us. Then we see God as our Guardian meaning He oversees our life. A guardian is responsible to protect and care for those in their charge. When God, in His grace, calls us to Himself as His children, He gladly takes us under His care. He doesn’t do this with a haphazard commitment. He takes on the responsibility not only for our lives here on earth but for all eternity. There is great peace in the truth that the Lord is our Shepherd! No wonder, Psalm 23:1 goes on to say, “I shall not want”.
Truth – I shall not want. Rather, I shall have no need for want. Everything necessary is given to me by my Father in Heaven.
Think! What does ‘I shall not want’ mean? Does it mean that anything and everything my heart desires will be given to me? Of course not! But what it does mean is that I will never lack what I need to do God’s will, to fulfill His plan for my life.
I may feel as if I need more strength to complete even simple daily tasks on my own. God knows exactly what truly needs to be done and will provide strength enough for that. Many of you are no longer able to prepare your own meals, that’s okay, God has provided someone who will do that for you. Most of you are unable to drive, that too is okay, because you have been given transportation when you need it. In your eighties, nineties and even into the century mark, you can be assured that God will continue to bless you with all that is needed to please Him. You may not be able to train for a marathon, let alone run one, but you will reach the prize. The end goal is eternal life with Christ. If you’re His child, you’ve already received the winner’s ribbon – it was pinned on your heart the day you accepted Jesus.
God will not withhold the blessings that allow you to live a life pleasing to Him. You will not fail because you lack what is needed to fulfill His plan for you. If you do not have everything you desire it is because God has not considered it necessary.
God will feed us, He will lead us (Isa 40:11)
God will provide guidance for us from others who follow His truths; In God, there is no need to fear, nor be dismayed; there is no lack (Jer 23:4)
God will search for you and seek you out when you stray (Eze 34:11-12)
God has ransomed you with His Son’s very life (John 10:11)
“I shall not want”. God’s children can say those words with confidence. We all have a choice to be satisfied with what God has supplied. We have a choice to be content where He has us.
Php 4:19 And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Notice the words in the scripture above. It says God shall supply. Not maybe, not perhaps, but will!
2Co 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed;
Again, carefully take notice of the words used in the previous reference. It says we will ‘always have all sufficiency in everything’, ‘an abundance for every good deed’. Without the cross, we are lacking; with the cross, at the feet of the Savior, there is no want.
Read how Paul encourages the Ephesian church: Eph 3:13-19 Therefore I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory. 14 For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; [and] that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
Don’t lose heart either for others or for yourself! Although you may feel like your physical body is waning, God will continue to strengthen you in your heart and soul. For His glory. He will continue to bless His children with the knowledge of His security and a love immeasurable until that day you are complete in Him in heaven. The Annotated Bible Notes says we can be assured that ‘nothing really beneficial to body or soul will be withheld’.
Re 7:17 for the Lamb in the center of the throne shall be their shepherd, and shall guide them to springs of the water of life; and God shall wipe every tear from their eyes."
The role we have in attaining the comfort of God as our Shepherd, and having confidence in His every provision, is that of a sheep. Sheep stand meek before their shepherd, willing and wanting to be led. Sheep know the voice of their shepherd and they follow him. Do you recognize God as your Shepherd? Are you seeking to follow Him? If yes, then trust in God’s care.
Ps 34:9 O fear the LORD, you His saints; for to those who fear Him, there is no want.
Ps 84:11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD gives grace and glory; no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.
Mt 6:33 "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.
Lu 12:30-32 "For all these things the nations of the world eagerly seek; but your Father knows that you need these things. "But seek for His kingdom, and these things shall be added to you. "Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom.
Ro 8:32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?
“I shall not lack for 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 want for spirituals, I know that his grace will be sufficient for me. Resting in him he will say to me, "As thy day so shall thy strength be." I may not possess all that I wish for, but "I shall not want." … 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 shall not bring me any lack, and even death with its gloom shall 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." Treasury of David
Mt 6:25 "For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, as to what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body than clothing?
One of the poor members of the flock of Christ was reduced to circumstances of the greatest poverty in his old age, and yet he never murmured. "You must be badly off", said a kind hearted neighbor to him one day as they met upon the road, "you must be badly off; and I don't know how an old man like you can maintain yourself and your wife; yet you are always cheerful!" "Oh no!" he replied, "we are not badly off, I have a rich Father, and he does not suffer me to want." "What! Your father is not dead yet? He must be very old indeed!" "Oh!" said he, "my Father never dies, and he always takes care of me!" This aged Christian was a daily pensioner on the providence of his God. His struggles and his poverty were known to all; but his own declaration was, that he never wanted what was absolutely necessary. The days of his greatest straits were the days of his most signal and timely deliverances. When old age benumbed the hand of his industry, the Lord extended to him the hand of charity. And often has he gone forth from his scanty breakfast, not knowing from what earthly source his next meal was to be obtained. But yet with David he could rely on his Shepherd's care, and say, "I shall not want;" and as certainly as he trusted in God, so surely, in some unexpected manner was his necessity supplied. John Stevenson.
The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. These are beautiful words to the believer. Find contentment in His provision, have confidence in His Truths, and trust in His Care.
