Psalm 23:1

Hey, everyone! 

 A while ago, it came to me that every single word in the first sentence of Psalm 23 could be something to meditate on: "The Lord is my shepherd."

It's THE Lord who is my shepherd. In Is. 45:18, God says, "I am the Lord, and there is no other." In verse 21, He says, "And there is no other God besides Me, a just God and a Saviour; there is none besides Me." The Jews still recite from Deut. 6:4, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one Lord." Google shows a list of "28 Biblical Passages Which Explicitly Teach There is Only One God."

Then, it's the LORD who is my shepherd. His name is "Lord of lords and King of kings." He is the creator and sustainer of all the universe. Imagine that! The universe contains trillions of galaxies, each containing billions or trillions of stars. He made and sustains all that, and even knows them all by name.

The Lord IS my shepherd. He is the great I AM, eternally in the present, as well as He who was and will be. He is always available to me. Anytime I turn to Him, He is always right there. One of His Hebrew compound names is Jehovah Shamma, the ever-present God.

The Lord is MY shepherd. Mine! He wooed me, called me, invited me into His family, and when I responded, He moved into my life and took up residence in my spirit. Amazing thought!  I Cor. 6:17 says, "the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him." And even though He made and sustains the whole universe, He takes interest in the littlest details of my life and hears my inner thoughts. I mentioned He knows all the stars by name. He also knows the number of hairs on my head!  And the same is true for you.  

The Lord is my SHEPHERD. He leads me, provides green pastures and quiet waters for me, and even a feast in the presence of my enemies, protects me, carries me when I am weak and tired, anoints my wounds with oil of healing. He is my El Shaddai, "more than enough."

Take comfort in knowing that THE one and only LORD of all IS at every moment and at all times YOUR very own personal SHEPHERD who sees to all your needs.

Hi!

Hi to everyone who may stumble across my little scribbles. Just about this and that.
Like, the importance of thankfulness. We may think life is difficult, but we all know 99% of the rest of the world would be glad to trade in their problems for ours.
So, when Jesus walked on the water to His exhausted disciples struggling in their storm-beaten boat, and said to them, "Be of good cheer!  It is I", wasn't that a little unreasonable? They were still in a desperate situation. Why should they "be of good cheer"? Couldn't He have waited until He had stilled the storm and they had come to the shore before telling them to "be of good cheer"?
One thing to remember is that God is never unreasonable. He doesn't require of us what we cannot possibly do. In Philippians 4:4 we are told to "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!" Can God possibly mean always? Apparently, He does, and He knows that we actually can do this. It doesn't mean we never have tears, are never angry, etc. But in the middle of whatever is going on, there is the knowledge that we have a good God, a loving heavenly Father, who sent Jesus to reveal to us His grace and mercy and goodness. This is enough for us to say over and over, in any situation, "Thank You, Lord! You are good!"
Sometimes it seems to me that when we say to God, "You are so good!" that He chuckles and says, "You think that was good? Just wait and I'll show you much more good!"
So in the middle of whatever is going on, remember to turn to God and smile and say, "Thank You for being in my life. You are so good."