Praise the Lord for this new day. Alice and I spent a few days last week visiting our children. We drove down to Washington, DC to see Sunita and Andy. From there we drove to see Jess and Tom in Philadelphia (Abington) in their new home(this old House made with Pennsylvania bluestone). From Philly we drove to Boston to visit Janice, Jeremy, Micah, and Simeon. The Lord blessed us wonderfully. I came back Friday and Alice came home yesterday after attending worship service with Janice and her family in Cambridge, Mass. Micah told her Grandma, "Grand mom you can stay with us for 500 hundred years". Simeon said, Grandmom stay with us. Don't go " Praise the Lord for His rich blessings that money can not buy.
The Lord blessed us yesterday with a very blessed day in His House, in worship and fellowship. One of the readings for yesterday was Psalm 23. Psalm 23 is called the Shepherd's Psalm, because it portrays God as a Good Shepherd, who cares for and looks after this flock. The Psalm is attributed to King David. If anyone was qualified to describe God in this manner, David was. We know from the Bible that David had been a shepherd as a youth, before he became a king. Because of this David had a pretty good idea of what a shepherd is like. How often David must have gazed up at the heavens on those star-filled nights while he was out watching over his father’s sheep and pondered the very nature of God! There, in the depths of his heart, he must have pondered the ways in which God was like a shepherd. His years of herding sheep had taught him a few things and, as he contemplated the shepherd’s work, he found a fitting description of what God does for his people.
We love this Psalm because it speaks so tenderly about life. Of all the psalms in the Bible, this Psalm 23 is the best known, and best loved. It is also the most-memorized. It is read at funerals to comfort the sorrowing, at hospital beds to encourage the suffering, and to those who have run aground on the discouragements of life. We read it because it is a song of confidence in God.
David well remembered how important it was for the shepherd to watch out for the welfare of the sheep, to see that there was good pasturage. Sheep, by themselves, would not know where the best pasture is. They need the shepherd to bring them to fields of green grass and fresh water, where they can lie down and rest and be nourished. There their strength would be restored or renewed.
Provision of rest, of refreshment, and of renewal are the primary tasks of the shepherd in keeping his sheep. Without these the sheep become sickly or ill-fed. They put their trust in the shepherd to take care of them.
God cares for us in the same way. Just as the shepherd cares for the sheep, so God, in a spiritual sense, “makes us to lie down in green pastures, leads us beside the still waters, and restores our soul.” What David was saying is that we can trust God for all of our needs in life. When we rest in God’s love, feed upon God’s word, and drink his living water, our souls are restored. Psalm 23 is a psalm about God’s provision.
Psalm 23 does not just expresses confidence in a God who provides, it also expresses confidence in A GOD WHO PROTECTS. This is the second great affirmation of confidence in God. David said: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.” David knew well the dangers the shepherd faced. It was not enough to provide for his sheep a good place to pasture. The shepherd would also have to provide protection for his sheep. With his rod and staff, he would gently prod the sheep back into the flock and guide them in paths of safety. Sometimes with the great crook of the staff he needed to pull a sheep back from a crevasse into which it might have fallen, or to stave off the attacks of wild animals. The shepherd’s rod and staff are tools, as well as weapons of protection.
“I SHALL not want” ....
“I WILL not fear” ....
And “I WILL dwell in the house of the Lord... FOREVER!”
Thanks be to Jesus the Good and the Winsome Shepherd.
In Him,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jEXDPzqo2g
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