Psalm 23

Psalm 23:1, "The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need."  (NLT)

In yesterday's post I made mention that I spoke at a funeral on Tuesday in Louisville, KY.  During the preparation of that sermon/eulogy for that funeral I read and re-read Psalm 23.  Many of us are very familiar with the words of that Psalm yet have we truly paid attention to what is being spoken to us through the words that came to us from the heart of the True Shepherd?  I began to reflect on that passage and realized that God was reminding us that He is present with us during what I call the "ups and downs" of life.  God is present in the good times but He is also present in the challenging times that we face.  Many of us recognize God during those moments of blessing and goodness yet we become concerned when we perceive that He is absent during the difficult circumstances that we will face as we travel the road that we call life.  The first verse in Psalm 23 reminds us that the Shepherd will provide what we need. I don't think that means that God will grant my "wish list" of things that I desire to make my life more comfortable or those things that will increase my inventory of possessions.  Rather, I believe that the Shepherd will provide what I need to make the right decisions in life; He will provide the strength and courage that I need to obey Him and love Him with all of my heart; He will provide power and understanding to resist the strategies of the enemy of my soul; He will provide the Holy Spirit which will teach and reveal truth to my life; He will provide Grace and Mercy to forgive others and to receive the assurance that Christ has forgiven our sins; and He will provide whatever I need to finish my race and complete the course of my life.  I could go on; but hopefully you are able to see the depth of the promise of verse 1 of Psalm 23.  Take a moment and review some of the times in your life in which the True Shepherd provided what you needed at certain times in your life.  I believe that you will find yourself lifting your voice and offering sincere praise and thankfulness to the Lord God Almighty and remember that He is the True Shepherd and that He does care about your journey through life.

The service last night was wonderful as the Spirit continues to challenge our hearts about our need to surrender our lives to the process of examination and transformation.  We must not allow ourselves to walk with a "self inflated ego" which rejects the idea that we actually need more of God in our lives.  The Bible reminds us that "pride goes before a fall."  Was pride not the issue that Christ found in the church in Laodicea in Revelation 3?  Christ saw the church one way and the people of the church viewed themselves in another manner.  Christ knew that they needed more of Him in their lives but they were content to "assume " that they had what they needed.  We must be careful and not rely on "fleshly assumptions"; they can be deceitful and take us away from God rather than taking us toward God.