I apologize that I haven’t
written a post in a little bit, it has been a very busy past few days and its
only going to get busier, so I thought I would take a second to write a quick
post before I get too busy. Last week at cru, Brooke talked all about Psalm
23:1-4. I absolutely love these verses and I actually have a painting of it in
my room right now. Brooke did an amazing job of portraying these verses in a
different light that made me appreciate them so much more! I hope you enjoy!
The Lord is my shepherd, I
shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in
green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of
righteousness
for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk
through the valley of the
shadow of death,[a]
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
Okay, so I am going to go line by line,
going into deeper detail about just what each of them means. Brooke got all of
this information from a book called “A Shepherd’s Look at Psalm 23” and I would
suggest getting it, because she said it was very eye-opening!
“The
Lord is my shepherd”
When we look
at this line, we see the word “my.” This small word has so much important
meaning behind it. “My” implies a sense of intimacy to the passage. The Lord is
MY shepherd, he is all mine. He cares about me.
“I shall not be in want”
Because the
Lord is a good shepherd, I shall not be in want. He knows everything, so rest
and trust in Him and His comforting presence throughout your life.
“He makes me lie down in green
pastures”
I never
really understood this verse whenever I read this passage. Normally I would
just skip over it, but now I realize that it is so incredibly important to the
picture that Psalm 23 is trying to portray. In this passage, we are the sheep
and God is the shepherd. So we are going to talk about sheep for a little bit. This
line implies resting, yet sheep were very restless creatures. Many things kept
them from resting and all of these things can be related back to our life in
some way.
---Fear: the
smallest thing will make sheep fearful and they will stay that way until the
shepherd gets there. The shepherd’s presence calms the sheep and lets them
sleep. We are just like the sheep in the sense that if we fix our eyes on the
Shepherd, God, we no longer have to pay attention to the fear that surrounds us
on a daily basis. Fix your eyes on the Shepherd so that you can rest without
fear of the future.
---Tension among
the flock: The moment the shepherd walks onto the field, the sheep focus on him
instead of the tension between them. We, as humans, have a constant rivalry
with each other to be better and achieve more than our neighbors. But if we
shift our focus to the Shepherd, all of our attention is no longer on beating our
neighbors, but on worshipping our God.
---Another thing
that keeps sheep from resting is when bugs are attacking them. The shepherds do
everything they can to protect their sheep from being attacked. They will put
lotion on them, shave their wool, and do anything they can to keep them safe.
Just as the shepherd protects his sheep from bugs, God protects us from the
“bugs” in our life. The Lord meets us where we are at and constantly protects
us from what is eating at us, such as work, stress, school, and many other
things.
---Hunger: sheep
will literally eat anything they see if they are hungry. The shepherd
constantly has to feed them or else they will eat things that will hurt them in
the long run (or maybe even the short run). We tend to seek other things when
we not hungry only for the Lord. When we don’t abide in the Lord, we seek
attention somewhere else. Our emptiness from not seeking the Lord drives us to
try and fill our emptiness with things that are not good for us.
“He leads me besides quiet waters”
When sheep
are thirsty, they will run to anything and everything to get some water. They
do not understand that water is only in certain places, so the shepherd has to
constantly lead them to a water source. Just like the shepherd leads the sheep
to good water, God leads us to better things. The Lord is our adventure and if
we are constantly seeking to follow Him, we will experience a wonderful
adventure full of blessings.
“He restores my soul”
When a sheep
falls down and flips over, they cannot physically get back up without help from
the shepherd. While the sheep is lying on his back, he will begin to get tense
and his muscles will no longer be able to move, as they should. Because of
this, when the shepherd gently flips the sheep back over, he massages it and
speaks to it quietly until the sheep is calm and back to its normal state. In
life, there are difficult things that we will have to endure that may knock us
on our back, but God will always be there to flip us back over and make sure we
are back to our normal self.
“He guides me in the path of
righteousness”
As you have
probably picked up from all of the examples above, sheep are almost completely
dependent on the shepherd. Another example is that sheep cannot stay in the
same pasture because they will eat and eat until there is nothing left for them
to eat. So, depending on the season, the shepherd has to guide the sheep to new
pastures so that they can stay healthy. God brings us through all the seasons
of life and guides us just as the shepherd did. He leads us out of temptation
and into righteousness.
“Even though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.”
A certain
time in the year, the shepherd will lead his sheep through a valley. During
this time, the sheep get the most attention from their shepherd. He focuses on
them and cares for them and gives them amble amounts of love. We are faced with
trials in life and we are walking through the valley. But we are WALKING, not
stopping, not staying there, walking. So eventually, we will walk right out of
that valley. God is giving us so much attention during this time, just as the
shepherd gives his sheep extra attention.
“Your rod and your staff, they comfort
me.”
A rod
protects the sheep, but also disciplines the sheep. It is used to comb through
the sheep’s wool and make sure nothing is harming them. The rod is the word of
the Lord. It is our sword and it protects us and guides us through life.
A staff
guides and draws the sheep close to the shepherd, especially if they are
walking towards something that is bad for them. A staff is the Holy Spirit. It
guides us and draws us near to the Lord, making sure we are always to close to
Him.
I hope that
this detailed description has helped you realize just how much God is our
shepherd and how much He cares for us.
Have a
wonderful and blessed week!
God Bless!
