“The Lord is My Shepherd, I shall not want …” (Psalm 23:1)
David as a young shepherd boy knew what was required to look after his father’s sheep. When he became King of Israel, he would come to understand what was required to look after an entire nation.
In all of this … throughout the various stages of his life, this “man after God’s own heart” … understood that while he was watching sheep or a nation … there was Someone watching over him!
Speaking from the perspective of a sheep in God’s pasture under His love, care, and protection … he had absolutely no desire to be anywhere else! He was satisfied … contented … and needed only the Shepherd’s watchful eye and vigilant presence.
God’s people today … the “my sheep …” of John 10, too, can be sure the Lord, the Good Shepherd, meets all our needs. He listens to our prayers, and if we call on Him, we will receive His grace and help in a time of need (Hebrews 4:14–16).
Every new day … well … is a good day! Right? Not exactly! To realize that God has blessed us with another moment to live … breathe … to serve! Wonderful truths that we are to hold on to with such great hope in and of them … that cannot be taken from us without our willingness to release them.
Every day, when we have been blessed with a new day … we are reminded in various ways in the world around us that He has given us another day to live in service and honor to Him!
I am reminded by any number of things that it is so … but there is a picture above my desk that I look at every morning when I turn on my desk lights and the computer, one of a shepherd walking along with his sheep, and the first lines of the 23rd Psalm.
My children gave it to me a number of years ago. That alone makes it very special and meaningful!
And I pause for a little while … just looking at the beauty of the images portrayed and the deeper and reassuring truths that come to my mind from them … and I know I am not alone!
But the next layer of thought can easily travel back in time to perhaps the most challenging time of my life. And those who know my story will know what happened. Under extremely difficult and seemingly impossible odds, I stared death in the face not once, but multiple times!
And repeatedly, as I was sure my life was about to end in a horrible way … the only verses that could come to my mind were those of this Psalm. So, you see, it’s not just another beautiful piece of artwork that sits above my desk! No … it is much more than that.
And each of us makes our choice as to whose “pasture” we’re going to graze in and who the shepherd of that pasture is.
The choice should be crystal clear. Jesus warned in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:24, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other: or else hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
Each of us has our own personal battles and challenges in this world, don’t we!
When blessed with a new day we don’t know what the new day brings with it … but faith and trust in Jehovah assure and sustain us and enable us to face the day in faith! Even the strongest have “giants” to face.
So what is my point? My point is … never to take a single new day … a single moment in life for granted! There are no guarantees from our God about how much time we have on this earth!
And we must never … ever … take the existence and the presence of our “Great Shepherd” for granted or thinks He is not near or does not care!
I know that my Shepherd has been beside me even when I wasn’t sure at the moment. He has been with me down into the “valley of the shadow of death” more than once … only to bring me through to live for another day. Thank you, Lord!
My brethren and friends … we must be ever so careful not to take a single day for granted … a single blessing for granted … a single hug, phone call, text, email … for they are a part of His blessings being sent our way through others!
That is the kind of God we have … that we serve … that we offer praise and thanksgiving for … at every meal … throughout our day!
And this is why when a new day turns into a bad day … when a new day literally brings with its arrival unpleasantness of various sorts … when a new day breaks … and you’re just not sure how you are going to face it and deal with it …
Look to the Shephard who possesses unlimited gentleness, kindness, and love that can and will sustain us … because “… His mercies are new every morning ….” (Lamentations 3:21)
The promise of God is that He is attentive to you. He’s watching you. You have his full attention. He’s watching out for you each day. He’s aware of what you’re going through. He knows all about it.
He is our Shepherd … and we will not want!
“Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.” (Psalm 100:3)
Bill Fairchild, Jr.
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