“THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD!”

 Psalms 23                          (KJV)

“THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD”

     “1 “THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD”; I shall not want. 2 HE maketh me to lie down in green pastures: HE leadeth me beside the still waters. 3 HE restoreth my soul: HE leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for HIS name's sake. 

     4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for THOU art with me; THY rod and THY staff they comfort me. 

     5 THOU preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: THOU anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.”

Probably one of the most memorized Scriptures of the BIBLE is written above in the King James Version.  As I was growing up the were few other translations of the BIBLE, so I was left with no other offerings to HEAR from ALMIGHTY GOD.  “THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD” has been used around me since I can remember.   The word shepherd has always meant a person who keeps sheep.  However a dictionary offers as “a person who protects, guides, or watches over a person or group of people”.  

When you place the words “a person who protects, guides, or watches over” where the focal Scriptures talks about GOD ALMIGHTY, it may give you a completely more positive reading of Psalms 23?  Knowing that THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSES “protects, guides, or watches over” HIS CHOSEN “should” give us all the confidence and grace that we would ever require.  “THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD” is the same GOD WHO delivers us through the “valley of the shadow of death”!  “HE maketh me lie down in green pastures” is the same GOD that “leadeth me beside the still waters!”  

Whatever GOD has for me in the future, I should be grateful to serve HIM!  Whether it is through gain or loss, health or illness, GOD has PROMISED that “THOU art with me; THY rod and THY staff they comfort me”!  Why should I feel discouraged when GOD is with me???  Or why should I feel overjoyed with success when GOD gives me breath (Isaiah 42:5) long before I inhale???

A dictionary defines the word HUMAN as “of, pertaining to, characteristic of, or having the nature of people”.  Believers are a special offspring, A NEW CREATION (2 Corinthians 5:17), someone DIFFERENT than others!  The six verses of Scripture in Psalms 23 doesn’t pertain to everyone.  Only we who can genuinely say “THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD”!!!