Trust in the Shepherd

Psalm 23

¹ The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.

² He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,

³ He restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake.

⁴ Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
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 goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.

After reading this passage, I have to pause and reexamine the first statement of this passage: "The Lord is my shepherd." What does this mean? Shepherd is such an outdated concept in our society. Most of us know that a shepherd is one who takes care of a flock of sheep and protects them from harm. Okay, that's cool, but then if God is our shepherd, then we are His sheep. Well, that isn't anything new; many of us have heard this overuse phrase on the Sunday mornings as we sit in church. Yet, we are like sheep. We aren't that smart or wise. We can't take care of ourselves. We tend to wander. We aren't strong or big. We need help, guidance, counsel, protection, and this is all taken care by the shepherd. So, when we say this phrase, "The Lord is my shepherd," we have to understand that we are like sheep. And I'm not talking about the general visualization of yourself jumping over some fence in someone's dream or just an animal grazing on a blade of grass. Imagery is good, but don't forget to go further! Sheep. When we say that God is our shepherd, we have to acknowledge that we are His sheep; we are sheep who can't even comprehend much, and more importantly, don't have the ability to do so. The sheep have total reliance on the shepherd. They don't trust in their own ability, but rather in the wisdom and knowledge of their shepherd. Do we do that? Do we really put our complete trust in God and faith in His plans? What about the times when we feel like we are doing so, but would like some results or at least some reasoning behind the chaos? It's hard to do so in these situations. I'm not going to lie, there are times that I want to just yell at God and question His plan and demand some answers. Yet, am I really in a place to demand this from God? I can ask and desire to know, but to demand? Don't many of us do this though? Many of us put too much of our trust and faith in the wrong place: us. I'm not saying to not believe in yourself, but are we not all humans? Are we not all geared and engineered to mistakes and faults? We rely on our ability to be the governing power in our lives, instead of God our shepherd. Why should we do this? Well, Psalms 23 answers this question. There are ridiculous benefits to trusting God! We can have what we lack when we acknowledge our limitations, and see the ways in which God completes these areas that we lack.

"The Lord is my shepherd" and I am His sheep.