Looking to the Shepherd

written by Sam Jones

Concerning comfort, there is a great truth found in Psalm 23:1 "The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want." This truth is not an easy one to bear, but it is a great truth nonetheless. The truth in Psalm 23:1 concerning comfort is this: as long as we recognize God as our Shepherd we will have comfort and contentment. This is not a truth that is easy to bear when you are going through a difficult circumstance, but it is one of the greatest comforts you can find once you grasp this truth. God is our Shepherd, He is our caregiver. It is God who is taking care of us no matter how great the difficulty. In my life, this verse has been both one of the greatest comforts and challenges to me in some of the darkest nights. Through the miscarriages that Sarah and I have had, it was this verse that constantly came to my mind. This verse challenged me to consider if I was truly recognizing God as my caregiver (Shepherd) or if I had wandered onto some foreign pasture through rebellion in my heart. This verse gives a clear promise; because God is my Shepherd I will not want! This promise is not based upon what is raging around, rather it is based upon if God is our Shepherd and if we recognize God as our Shepherd.

For God to be our Shepherd we must accept Jesus Christ as our Savior. We must do what it says in Romans 10:9 "That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." This is the greatest comfort you can have in life; knowing that you are saved from your sin and now have eternal life! In order to be content in every circumstance, and I believe comfort has a lot to do with contentment, we must recognize God as our Shepherd. I know that in this verse it doesn't say to recognize God as our Shepherd and then we will not want, but we must admit this is what David is doing in the Psalm and that we are to follow his example if we are to get the same result. To recognize God as our Shepherd we must rely upon Him and rest in the fact that He is leading us with a better purpose than we could design. I will be the first to admit that this is brutally difficult when you are going through hardships. My first reaction to having a miscarriage was not to recognize God's leading, it was to question in a sinful manner what God was doing. I could point out deadbeat dad after deadbeat dad, I could point out godless father after godless father, and I could try to justify to God why I should have a child, but the reality was God was leading in a specific way and His way is always best.

I have already touched on some of the ways God was moving and working, I would rather focus this post on how I simply needed to trust that God was doing His job Shepherding rightly. To go along with Psalm 23:1, in driving this principle home in my life God also brought a recurring hymn to my mind; that hymn was He Leadeth Me specifically the verse that states, "Lord, I would place my hand in Thine, Nor ever murmur nor repine; Content, whatever lot I see, Since ’tis my God that leadeth me." Why can we be content and not want? It is because we recognize God as our Shepherd and the One who is leading us in life (this also means we must follow Him) that will bring contentment and a lack of wanting. To recognize God as our Shepherd and that He is rightly leading us in the difficulties of life we must have a right value placed upon Him. It is only when we let go of our life and let God take control as He sees fit that we will have God valued rightly in our life. To recognize God as our Shepherd is to also recognize ourselves as sheep. This brings a lot of relief when our life is falling apart for we know that it is simply our responsibility to listen to our Great Shepherd as He directs our path.

The comfort that comes from having God as our Shepherd is explained throughout Psalm 23. We can rest assured that He only leads us beside still waters and green pasture, this doesn't mean life will always be easy, but it does mean that our Shepherd, not our circumstances, is where we find our comfort. We know that God, as our Shepherd, will restore our soul and will not lead us to sin, but rather will always lead us to dwell in righteousness. Even in death’s shadow we can be comforted because of God's rod and staff. A shepherd used his rod and staff to fend off those who would seek to destroy his sheep and to count his sheep at the end of the day. This brings great comfort for we know God will fight for us and has taken account of what state we are in. As God's sheep, we know God personally cares about where we are in life and keeps constant tabs on the state we are in. Even in the presence of our enemies, we can say with David that our cup runs over, not because there is no trouble (in fact it could be staring at you from across the table), but because we know who our Shepherd is! It is only when we realize Who our Shepherd is we can rightly say, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life!" It is my hope that as you seek comfort you would let the truth of Psalm 23:1 sink into your life and be comforted! "The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want."