Psalms 23:1 – “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”
This beautiful Psalm begins with the words, “The Lord is my Shepherd.”
When we read and pray these words it becomes personal. David, who was a shepherd wrote declaring the Lord is my shepherd.
Jesus did not leave the splendor of heaven and come to this fallen world just to establish another religion. He came to heal the breach brought on by humanity’s sin. He went to the cross and suffered so we can know Him intimately. He came to restore the fellowship we can have with the Father. I John 1:3 says, “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.”
Jesus died and rose again so we can be victorious over sin. I John 5:5 says, “Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” I Peter 2:24 says, “who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.” This Scripture teaches that the Lord Jesus Christ took our place upon the cross and bore the punishment that was due because of our sins. In John 10:11 Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.”
He is a personal Lord. John 1:10-13 says, “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.”
The opening words of verse 1, “The Lord is my Shepherd” unlocks the whole Psalm. Francis Dixon writes, “He is a shepherd, but best of all, He is my shepherd. Is He yours? It is only when we know Him that the blessings of the rest of the psalm become ours. It is possible to know the psalm without knowing the shepherd; it is better to know both!”[1] The Lord is my shepherd that’s relationship.
[1] Dixon, Francis, Words of Life Ministries, Retrieved from the internet, 1/12/23, https://www.wordsoflife.co.uk/bible-studies/study-4-the-sweetest-psalm-of-all/
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