Psalm 23:1
1 A Psalm [mizmowr] of David. [David]
The LORD [Yahovah] is my shepherd; [ra`ah] I shall not want. [chacer] KJV-Interlinear
A Psalm
of David.
1 The
Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. NASB
When we were studying
Rev. 6, we saw the despair of those who have been otherwise negative toward
God. The world is crashing down around them and they are filed with
frustration, rage, anxiety, hopelessness and helplessness, as well as many
other emotions.
Here we see the flip side
of the coin, and look at believers who are advancing toward maturity.
The 23rd psalm. A psalm of a King. Note that David was a very
brave warrior. He fought well in battle, he led well in his government. For 40
years He was king and with the exceptions of just a few years out of those 40,
the vast majority of those years were as a stable and mature believer.
But prior to all of his
public history, David was a humble shepherd. No education of any formality. He
learned at home or in the field. No fancy universities, no fancy degrees, only
Bible doctrine and God did all the rest.
The Lord, 'Jehovah', is a
personal name for the Son of God, the second person of the trinity, who is
Jesus Christ. He is the only member of the trinity who has a personal name. The
Father and the Holy Spirit do not have such identifying names. None of the
members of the trinity have any superiority over the other two. They are all
co-equal, co-infinite, and co-eternal. They all have the same ten basic essence
characteristics of omniscience, omnipotence, immutability and so forth. But the
only person through whom we have access to God, is Jesus Christ.
He is our shepherd. God
watches over us and provides for us, for our every need.
'I shall not want'. Want,
'chacer', make less, fail, lack. This is better translated , 'I shall not lack
for anything.' 'I shall not have less, but more'.
God is our shepherd. That
is He is the shepherd of those who are positive toward Him. God provides for us
all in general.
He has a policy of common
grace wherein He provides for the entire human race - believer and unbeliever.
He has a policy of grace
wherein He provides more for believers – who are both positive and negative
toward Him.
And He has a policy of
greater grace (the book of James) wherein He provides above and beyond for
mature believers.
The shepherd leads his
flock to where the food and water is. He leads his flock to the better resting
areas. He protects his flock from predators. He rescues members of his flock
when they stray away from the flock or get disoriented and lost. The shepherd
watches over all the flock and sees the things that the flock does not see. He
anticipates for the future needs of the flock. The needs that the flock does
not even know it will require. The shepherd guides and collects and directs the
movements of the flock. He keeps the flock in place when it is time to stay. He
moves the flock forward when it is time to move.
The shepherd keeps track
of the timing of the flocks needed movements and the seasons, in which the
flock finds itself. The shepherd controls the flock.
In contrast those peoples
of Rev. 6 have no leadership. They have no life. They have no guidance, no map
to follow. Their problems are so many, they don't even know where to begin to
find a solution.
A flock of God, grazes
peacefully in the meadows. Those people in Rev. 6, have no meadow. They have
only misery and death all around them.
Gods flock lacks for
nothing. Everything is provided. And that is really what life should be all
about. The life of the very wealthy is a prime example of how things should
really be. They have everything provided, if we use them as an example, a
teaching example. Their life is of rest and relaxation. Of no schedules, no
deadlines, of no barriers.
In contrast the poor
folks of the world, have all the deadlines, they lack in almost everything they
have. They are short of money, short of freedom, short of the flexibility of
life. So in these two extremes we can learn and picture what God has available
for us depending on whether we are positive toward Him and advance toward
spiritual maturity, or whether we are negative toward Him and are in effect
standing still in our spiritual life.
Those negative folks of
Rev. 6, regardless of their station in life, have misery and inflexibility in
their lives. But in contrast, mature believers have greater flexibility and
blessings in life. Ones spiritual blessings depend only on ones spiritual
growth and advancement. It never depends on ones financial status, never on
ones social status, never on ones political status, and so forth.
With God watching, and He
does in particular watch over those who are positive toward Him and advancing
in their spiritual lives, then there is blessing, security, and protection.
This does not mean that life cannot capture you up in some sort of bad
situation. Many will suffer or even die for Christ's sake. But they will not
die in vain. Nor will they lose out in life because of their untimely bad
situation or even death.
This life is merely a
staging area for giving one the opportunity for first believing in Christ, and
second for being positive toward His Word and furthering their learning
regarding Christ. Apart from these two things, all else is nothingness as
Solomon states.
Bible study does not take
away anything from our personal lives. We lack for nothing. God watches out for
us and provides for us, forgetting nothing.
Apart from God, what
other resource does anyone have for their survival in life? Nothing.
So accepting God in your
life recognizes that He is the only source for everything in life.
Ignoring God rejects the
only resource for life and accepts the jungle or the world and its arbitrary
rules, which never keep your best interest at heart.
