"=The +LORD+ is my shepherd; I shall not want.="
"The +LORD+ is my shepherd." Have you ever noted how the word "Lord" is
printed in the Bible? Sometimes all the letters are large capitals
(LORD); or the first letter is a large capital and the other letters
smaller capitals (+LORD+); then, again, the first letter is a large
capital and the remaining letters ordinary (Lord). Each method of
spelling the divine name indicates a different phase of the character of
God. "LORD" refers to Jehovah as the covenant-keeping God, the One who
never fails to fulfill all His promises. "+LORD+" points to our Lord
Jesus Christ as the second Person in the Trinity, He who became
incarnate. "Lord" signifies also God in Christ, the Jehovah of the Old
Testament, God of power, the One who is able to do all things and with
whom nothing is impossible, manifesting Himself in Jesus Christ.
What a world of meaning, then, lies wrapped up in the word "+LORD+" in
the first verse of this Psalm! Jehovah who is all-faithful, never
failing in His promises, almighty, all-powerful, who is able to supply
all of our needs, who created the heavens and the earth, who upholds all
things by the word of His power, who spake and it was done, who
commanded and it stood fast; the +LORD+ of whom Job said: "I know that
thou canst do anything, and no purpose of thine can be hindered"; the
"+LORD+" who never fails in the keeping of His promises, however
seemingly impossible of fulfillment, from a natural viewpoint, those
promises may be; the "+LORD+" of whom it is said, "God is not a man that
he should lie, nor the Son of man that he should repent." "Hath he said
and shall He not do it; hath He promised and shall he not bring it to
pass?" the "Lord," the incarnate One, who for our sakes took on Himself
our nature with all its sinless infirmities, who was tempted in all
points like as we are, yet without sin, and who is thus able to feel our
needs and sympathize with us in all our trials and temptations; the
"+LORD+" who, speaking to the multitudes, said, "I am the good shepherd;
the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep"--such a Shepherd,
faithful, powerful, sympathetic, is our "+LORD+." What a wealth of
meaning, then, lies in the first clause, "The +LORD+" (who is LORD, and
Lord) such a "+LORD+" is "my Shepherd."
We can then well say, "I shall not want." With such a Shepherd, how
could we want for anything for time or eternity? All that we need for
body, mind and soul shall be supplied. The God who provided the table in
the wilderness, who fed Elijah by the brook, who struck the rock in the
wilderness that the thirst of His people might be quenched, will provide
for His children according to His riches in glory.
Reviewing Israel's history in the wilderness it could be recorded,
"These forty years Jehovah, thy God, hath been with thee; thou hast
lacked nothing." How wonderfully God supplied the needs of His people
when they were traveling through that long, weary wilderness! "For the
+LORD+ thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand; he
knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness; these forty years the
+LORD+ thy God hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing"
(Deuteronomy 2:7). "Thou gavest also thy good Spirit to instruct them,
and withheldest not thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water
for their thirst. Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the
wilderness, so that they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old,
and their feet swelled not" (Nehemiah 9:20, 21).
Let us, then, as the children of God, take all the comfort possible out
of these words. Let us not go about mourning, grumbling, and borrowing
trouble, thereby proclaiming to the world that our great Banker is on
the verge of bankruptcy. The "+LORD+" is our shepherd; we shall not want
for nourishment (verse 1), refreshment (verse 2), rest (verse 3),
protection (verse 4), guidance (verse 5), home (verse 6). Here is a Bank
the child of God can draw on at any time without fear of its being
broken. Millions have been supplied and there's room for millions more.
No want shall turn me back from following the Shepherd.
How encouraging to recall the words of Jesus uttered to the disciples
when they had returned from their itinerary of missionary activity:
"When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any
thing? And they said, Nothing" (Luke 22:35).
The Lord my Shepherd is,
I shall be well supplied,
Since He is mine and I am His,
What can I want beside?
--_Isaac Watts_
When the writer was a lad he secured a position for which he was
promised so much a week in money and "everything found," by which was
meant board, room, and clothing. So this verse may read, "The +LORD+ is
my Shepherd," and "everything found."
In a park one day two women were overheard talking. One of them, who by
her appearance showed that she was in very straitened circumstances,
said to the other, "I am at my wit's end; I know not what to do. My
husband has been sick and unable to work for almost a year. What little
money we had saved is all spent. We have not a penny with which to buy
food or clothing for ourselves or the children. This morning we received
notice from the landlord to vacate." And then, in words that were full
of suggestive meaning, she added, "If John D. Rockefeller were my
father, I would not want, would I?"
Oh, what a world of comfort lies in the thought, "The +LORD+ is my
Shepherd," and, therefore, "I shall not want"! I shall want for nothing
in time or eternity. Every need of body, mind, and soul shall be
supplied. In the great Shepherd lies strength for my weakness, hope for
my despair, food for my hunger, satisfaction for my need, wisdom for my
ignorance, healing for my wounds, power for my temptation--the
complement of all my lack.
Thou, O Christ, art all I want;
More than all in thee I find.
--_Charles Wesley_
=_Religion Is a Personal Thing_=
"The +LORD+ is my shepherd." _My_ Shepherd. Religion is a _personal_
thing. Really speaking, your religion consists in your personal
relationship to God in Jesus Christ. Not mere profession, but actual
possession is what counts. Christianity emphasizes the worth of the
individual and his personal relation to God. Sin degrades men into mere
numbers.
A photograph was placed on my desk. It had inscribed on it a number, but
no name. It was the likeness of a convict. It was a number I went to
jail to see; a number I spoke with by the cell door; a number I stood by
and saw handcuffed; a number with whom I walked down the steps of the
jail; a number with whom I walked up the stairs to the scaffold; a
number around whose neck I saw the rope placed; a number I saw drop to
his death. Sin degrades personality, but the religion of Christ exalts
its adherents to a place in that innumerable company which cannot be
numbered, but every one of whom bears upon his forehead the name of his
Redeemer and King. Jesus calleth HIS sheep by name, not by number.
At the close of a sermon in a church in the Highlands of Scotland the
preacher, who was supplying the pulpit for a few Sundays, was asked to
call upon a shepherd boy who was very sick. Arm in arm with one of the
elders of the church the minister crossed the moor, climbed the
hillside, and came to the cottage where the boy and his widowed mother
lived. After knocking at the door the visitors were admitted by the
mother. Her face showed the marks of long vigil. The boy was her only
child. The minister and elder went into the room where the sick boy lay
on his cot. The minister, looking upon the pale, haggard face of the
sick shepherd boy, asked him tenderly, "Laddie, do you know the
Twenty-third Psalm?"
Every Scotch boy knows the Twenty-third Psalm, and so the little fellow
replied, "Yes, sir, I ken (know) the Psalm well."
"Will you repeat it to me?" said the minister to the boy.
Slowly and tenderly the lad quoted the words, "The +LORD+ is my
shepherd, I shall not want," unto the end of the Psalm.
"Do you see," said the minister to the boy, "that in the first clause of
the first verse there is just one word for each finger. Hold up your
hand, laddie; take the second finger of your right hand, put it on the
fourth finger of your left, hold it over your heart and say with me,
'The +LORD+ is _my_ Shepherd.'"
The fourth finger of the left hand! Why that finger? Every woman knows.
It is the ring finger. Who placed that ring on your finger? My friend,
my lover, my husband; the man who is more to me and different to me
than any other and all other men in this world; the man without whom
life would not be worth living; _my_ friend, _my_ lover, _my_ husband.
The following Sunday the elder and the minister again crossed the moor
and came to the cottage on the hillside. As the mother opened the door
to admit them they saw by the expression on her face that a deeper
sorrow had fallen on her heart since they last saw her. She took them,
silently and solemnly, into a little room, and there, covered with a
snow-white sheet, lay the lifeless form of the shepherd laddie, her only
child. As the minister took the white sheet and passed it from forehead
to chin, from chin to breast, and from breast to waist, he saw, frozen
stiff in death, the second finger of the right hand on the fourth of the
left hand, which was fastened in death over his heart. The mother
exclaimed amid her tears, "He died saying, 'The +LORD+ is _my_
Shepherd.'"
What a world of difference that little word _my_ makes, does it not? As
a pastor I have often stood by the open grave that was to receive the
body of someone's beloved daughter, the light and joy of some heart. I
sought to be deeply sympathetic with those who were suffering
bereavement. I tried to mourn with those who mourned, and weep with
those who wept, and I think I did, so far as it is possible for a
friend to sympathize. But one day I stood by an open grave when _my_
daughter, _my_ child, _my own_ darling girl, _my_ Dorothy, was placed
beneath the sod. Ah! then I knew what grief was. Ah, what a world of
difference that little word _my_ makes!
It will not profit you much, my friend, to be able to say, "The +LORD+
is _a_ Shepherd"; you must be more personal; you must say, "The +LORD+
is _my_ Shepherd."
A Shepherd who giveth His life for the sheep,
A Shepherd both mighty to save and to keep--
Yes, this is the Shepherd, the Shepherd we need,
And He is a Shepherd indeed!
Is He yours? Is He yours?
Is this Shepherd, who loves you, _yours_?
--_Ada R. Habershon_