Maybe, just maybe, as Kind David thought about these things, as he contemplated the snapshots and thought of the faithfulness of God, maybe, just maybe, that is when he penned these words. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” The Lord is. That is present. I shall not want. That is future. We serve a God of the present and the future. And any good shepherd is going to take care of his sheep in the present, but also he is going to think about what is around the corner. Where they are going to go next? What they are going to do over there? They are thinking about pastures and quiet streams and still waters. A shepherd is thinking about the present and the future.
The thing that separates Christianity from all the other word religions is its personal pronouns. David didn’t say the Lord is a shepherd or I wish He were my shepherd, or the Lord is the shepherd. He said the Lord is my shepherd. We have a sense of possessing God and of God possessing us. There is power in these words. This concept of shepherding is a little bit foreign to us, but we need to get it, to know who God really is.
David was a shepherd boy and he was the son of a shepherd. He calls God the shepherd. When David wrote the words, the Lord is my shepherd, he was referring to God. And later on, Christ confirmed this statement when He said, I am the Good Shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. That means that I am satisfied. I have arrived. It is a statement of confidence. That is like saying, look who my shepherd is. Look who is managing me. Look who is running the show. Look at my CEO. Look at my coach. Look at my shepherd.
Ed Young Pastor – I’m talking to those of us who are married who need to resist the greener grass syndrome. To say “I am going to remain sexually pure before the marriage bed.”
