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The Lord Is My Shepherd

 

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. (NIV)

 

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. (KJV)

(Psalm 23:1)

 

          My Sunday School class homework asks me to spend some time memorizing and meditating on Psalm 23, so here is the first verse. First, let’s look at the first part. The Lord is my shepherd. There are books written about this psalm – one of them was written by a shepherd, so he has an idea what David was singing about. Without rehearsing what he wrote, the fact that the Lord is my shepherd means that the Lord calls the shots. I’m His pet, His livestock. He decides where I go, what I do, when to shear me, and, possibly, when to sacrifice me (in a manner much more minor than the sacrifice of Jesus Christ – I’m not even pretending to go there!)

          Generally, people think this psalm is comforting, and it is, but this part of this verse is problematic for me. It is comforting, but it is also disturbing. I lived with my parents and spent from 2015 to 2019 as my father’s caregiver. One of the biggest problems was that my parents tended to make decisions for me without including me in the conversation. The organizations and companies I worked for tended to make decisions that involved me without involving me.

          I can well imagine that most people go through some of this. It’s probably a completely natural – fallen – response. It’s not really that we want to be included. We want our opinion to matter at least a little more than anyone else’s. “It’s my life, after all!” How can anyone, even God, know what’s best for my life better than I do?

          Do you see what’s happening here? There’s separation.
It might seem tiny, but it’s the first blow of an ax against the bark of the tree of the relationship. It is the point at which we must decide if we are going to love and trust the Lord (or the parent, spouse, employer, or what-have-you) even though He is (or they are) taking charge of your life as if they have a right to do so and making decisions of which you haven’t approved. And, frustratingly, this isn’t a decision you make today and never have to make again. It’s a decision we all have to make every time the Lord’s will doesn’t happen to be ours.

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