"The Lord Is My Shepherd"
Psalm 23:1
The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is
the good Shepherd who laid down his life for and redeemed his sheep (John
10:11, 15), the great Shepherd who, in his resurrection glory, rules the
universe for the everlasting salvation of his sheep (Heb. 13:20), and the chief
Shepherd who will soon come again, the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, to
gather all his sheep into their glorious, heavenly fold (I Pet. 5:4). But I
like best the title David here gives to Christ: "The Lord is MY
SHEPHERD!" He seems to lay stress upon that personal, possessive pronoun -
"MY". David knew that the Lord was his Shepherd for one reason, by
one means. There was no other way he could have known it. He knew it because he
believed him. David trusted the Lord as his Shepherd. He gladly acknowledged
his entire dependence upon the Son of God, as sheep depend upon their shepherd
for everything. Can you, with honest confidence, repeat these words as your
own: "The Lord is my Shepherd?" If you trust him, you have every
right to do so. You have every right to claim a personal interest and property
in the Son of God as your Shepherd.
If the Lord is my
Shepherd, (And if I trust him, I cannot doubt that he is!), then I BELONG TO
HIM. I am his property. He owns me. That fact gives me
the utmost confidence of my security in his hands and inspires me to consecrate
myself to him daily (I Cor.
Don Fortner