God Is Your Shepherd, Leader, Protector – Life Is a Journey, part 35
You’re important to God. And he wants to lead, protect, and guide you. But are you ready for a close, personal relationship with God, the shepherd? Find out how much God loves you and wants to help you with whatever you need right now.
Through this series, you’ll learn how to live well & enjoy God's promises. You are loved by God; He knows your name. He has a plan for your life. Get helpful advice, encouragement, and hope for a life well lived.
Are you walking in faith and victory? Set your eyes on the promises of God. You only have one life journey; say yes to Jesus.
Will you allow God to fight for you today?
How do you face life’s challenges?
In life’s journey, how you view God will determine how you face life’s challenges. You need not fear or worry when you fully believe in the Lord, and that he is also the one who shepherds you each day.
“The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, 3 he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, 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 your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life” (Psalm 23, NIV).
No matter what you’re experiencing, you’re not alone. No matter whether you’re spiritually walking on the mountaintop or in the valley, you’re never alone.
David wrote this Psalm, I believe, out of his personal experience with the Lord Almighty being the shepherd of his life’s journey. David learned through his personal experience that the Lord, God Almighty was able to shepherd, lead, provide, deliver, defend, correct and comfort each one in his flock, both individually and corporately.
The title “Lord” speaks of God as being all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present; self-sufficient and accountable to only himself and no one else. The Lord is sovereign and no other being, spirit or otherwise, is greater. The sovereign Lord answers to no one.
The title “shepherd” speaks of something different. A shepherd is one of the lowest positions a person had in David’s time. A shepherd is on the job 24/7. A shepherd is tasked with making sure that the flock in his care is safe, well fed, and protected from vicious attacks of any kind. His job was to protect the sheep at all costs. If a sheep wandered off, he will leave all the others to go find and save that one and bring it back to flock.
Jesus does that for us. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep (John 10:11). He calls them and knows them by name.
“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd” (John 10:14-16).
The flock Jesus is referencing in John 10 is made up of all those who believe and have faith in Jesus. They’re all children of God.
Do you view God like David did?
In Psalm 23, David is giving us a word picture using broad strokes of how he views the Lord as both sovereign Lord and shepherd, and how the Lord cared for him. David knows firsthand about shepherding. David shepherded his father’s sheep and protected them when he was young. David shared his experience as a shepherd with King Saul as the armies of Saul were at a fearful standoff with the Philistines. David told Saul of his encounters with a lion and bear and his reliance on the Lord his God (see 1 Samuel 17:34-37).
In verses 2-5 of Psalm 23, David talks about how he lacked nothing. David believed as he stood for God and against the Philistines’ defiance towards God, that God would protect him from Goliath. David was considered defenseless against Goliath. He wore no physical armor and yet David was confident Goliath was about to go down. David trusted God. David knew God was able, and in faith he went forward to face the enemy.
Sheep are helpless animals. They are defenseless animals. They will wander off and get lost unless the shepherd pays attention. Shepherds did not have fences to put up at night. The sheep wandered around in the open. If the shepherd was able, he might find a cave of some kind or enclosure and he would guard the entrance, but those instances were few and far between.
David knew the relationship of a shepherd and his sheep, and how they so closely mirrored the Lord and mankind.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way (Isaiah 53:6).
For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls (1 Peter 2:25).
The idols speak deceit, diviners see visions that lie; they tell dreams that are false, they give comfort in vain. Therefore the people wander like sheep oppressed for lack of a shepherd (Zechariah 10:2).
Will you believe that God is with you?
“For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. 12 As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. 13 I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. 14 I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord. 16 I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice” (Ezekiel 34:11-16).
The writer describes what a shepherd will do and relates that truth to how the sovereign Lord would look after the Israelites. The same is true for the God who shepherds you. He’s saying that you’re not alone. I am with you.
Understand, God Almighty by sending his one and only son Jesus, and by Jesus going to the cross is saying:
You are not alone or on your own. I will tend you says the Lord.
You don’t need to worry or fear. I will pasture you says the Lord.
I will care for you and bind up your wounds and strengthen the weak.
Don’t stray from the presence and care of Jesus. If you do, know that God will search you out and bring you back. Only trust him. You need not run from him.
In the verses of Ezekiel that we just read, God is saying “I will rescue; I will bring; I will pasture; I will tend; I will search; I will bind up the injured.” The shepherd will call out to you. The shepherd will search for you. The shepherd will bring you back if you will allow him.
This is what a shepherd does. The shepherd cares for his sheep. The shepherd will guide the sheep to a place of safety, that is well watered, and has a good food supply and free from pests. Only then will the shepherd get the sheep to lay down quietly.
David knows that truth himself and tells us that the Lord will provide all that is needed just as a shepherd is able to get his sheep to lay down.
Jesus, the Good Shepherd, will help you feel safe and refreshed in your soul if you will only trust Jesus, the shepherd of your soul. It is clear in this Psalm that the Lord not only provides but also guides the believer, his flock, along the right path in life.
In other words, the Lord carefully leads us in a way that is safe. The Lord will not tempt us, but he will help us when we are tempted. The shepherd never willingly causes any of his sheep to be tempted or wander off due to a need; however, individual sheep wander off on their own and they become vulnerable to attack from the enemy. Know that a good shepherd will seek and search out for the one who wanders off and will bring them back to the flock.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).
Also see John 6:35 and John 14:27.
Are you ready for a personal relationship with God?
It is no accident that God has chosen to refer to himself as Lord and shepherd and his people as sheep. Like sheep, we have fears, are stubborn, and wander off. We have no real spiritual defenses of our own with regards to things of the spirit. On our own, we will not search for God.
“There is no one righteous, not even one; 11 there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one” (Romans 3:10-12).
Our sinful nature will lead us further away from God. The unbeliever is much like a person who is surrounded by an ocean of salt water. Drink it and it will never satisfy your thirst. You will die. But God will not give up on you.
Psalm 23 is a psalm of confidence and describes a close, personal relationship between the shepherd and his sheep.
David acknowledges the Lord as my shepherd. David trusts the Lord in his very presence, and his acts of love to protect, provide and point the way to safety. David understood God to be his sovereign Lord and also his shepherd throughout his life.
What about you? Do you acknowledge Jesus as your sovereign Lord and the good shepherd? Do you know the voice of the shepherd? Will you obey his call?
He loves you with an everlasting love, and was willing to give his life, that you might be saved.
We have only one condition given in psalm 23 “I shall not want”. Is the Lord truly my shepherd? Do I truly know him as one who leads, protects, guides?
Listen, knowing God as Lord is one aspect of relationship. Knowing God as my shepherd is all the more real and personal relationship that you will need in times of need.
Every Christian has the privilege and birthright of being a child of God. Understand, you’re important to the Lord. The Lord, the good shepherd of your soul will deliver you from the bondage and curse of sin. Believe and have faith in Jesus. Call out to him in faith. God sent his one and only son to redeem you. Jesus said yes to the cross. Jesus died and rose from the grave, paying the price to redeem you. Now walk in faith and victory. Remain close to the shepherd and you will never be in need.
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