The Lord is my Shepherd
In Psalm 23 David calls the Lord his shepherd. What is significant to me about that is not
so much David’s recognition of God as a shepherd, but his own willingness to
consider himself a sheep! Phillip
Keller, in his beautiful book “A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23”, describes sheep
as being senseless, helpless and defenseless.
It is significant that David the king, who knew sheep well, would be
willing to approach God admitting that he was senseless, helpless and
defenseless.
Sunday we are going to be looking at Hebrews 13:20-22 which
describes Jesus as our Shepherd. But it
is meaningless to think of Jesus as our shepherd if we are unwilling or unable
to acknowledge that we are the sheep!
The peace and joy that comes from resting in the hands of Jesus only
becomes a reality when we let go of every pretense of self-sufficiency and
humbly and gratefully admit that before God we are senseless, helpless and
defenseless.
The key question throughout this series has been, “If Jesus
loves me why is my life so hard?”
Sunday
we will consider the reality that much of the pain, struggle and despair of
living in a sinful world pass away when willingly place our lives in the hands
of the Shepherd. Consider these things
as you prepare for worship on Sunday:
- Do you acknowledge your need of a Shepherd?
- How much do you need Jesus? Do you need/turn to him for everything, or just for the things you feel you can’t handle by yourself?
- Are you willing to be led by the Shepherd, allowing him to determine what you need, what you should do and where you should go?
- What areas of your life have you been unwilling to surrender to the Shepherd? Your work? Finances? Family? Your thought life? Recreations?
Think and pray about these things as we consider together
the role of Jesus as our Shepherd.
