“The Lord is my
Shepherd, I shall not want...” –
Psalm 23:1
A
construction crew was building a new building in a rural area, knocking down
trees as it progressed. The project
manager noticed that one tree had a nest of birds who couldn’t yet fly and had
marked the tree so that it would not be cut down. Several weeks later the man
came back to the tree. He got into a
bucket truck and was lifted up so that he could peer into the nest – all the
birds were gone. They had obviously
learned to fly. The man then ordered the tree to be cut down. As it fell, some of the material which the
birds had used to build the nest fell free. Part of the scrap the man picked up
and noticed was a piece of a Sunday School pamphlet. On the scrap of paper were the words from I
Peter 5:7, “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.” That day the project manager learned of God’s intimate
care of his creation in a whole new way. But the
question I have for us is - do we doubt it? I find I do. There are times where
my own heart doubts God’s care. If I were to be truthful it is because I
actually doubt something about God Himself.
Like, if there are 6 billion other people on the planet, why would He be
concerned with me? Or, surely God has enough other things to think about – what
with stars, planets and comets flying through the galaxy? Yet, somehow in a way
that may seem or feel elusive to us – God really cares about the intimate
details of His children’s lives.
David
helps us reorient our ‘wondering’ and ‘wandering’ hearts, as he declares that
God is his Shepherd – but what does this mean? Well, David knew all about being
a Shepherd. Do you remember this young, ruddy boy who picked out five stones
from a stream to battle a giant? Where else did he learn these skills than from
fighting off predators from his sheep? But what is most remarkable about our
verse is that David attributes a shepherding roll to God, as the Great ‘Pastor’
of the universe. David knew with certainty that God was transcendent, high
above and ‘other to Himself’ – he speaks of this in some of his other writings.
But here he is consumed with the nearness of God – the personal, powerful and
practical way that God relates to David, in a quite mundane and lowly task –
that of shepherding.
First,
David uses the personal Name for God, ‘LORD’,
translated ‘Yahweh’ in Hebrew. This word is
used 4,000 times in the Old Testament.
It is the same word that was cherished and hallowed as unspeakable by
the Hebrew people. It is the word that God used with Moses at the burning bush
(Exodus 3) in answer to Moses’ question, ‘When
the children of Israel ask Who has sent me to them what shall I say?’ - ‘Say,
I Am that I Am’...lit. Lord, the self-existent One. This word speaks
of God’s timelessness, His self-sufficiency, His inexhaustibility. God is
wholly unto Himself. But there is something more – this amazing, Holy God is
David’s Shepherd. The God of eternity has related to David in a lowly,
meaningful and nurturing way.
Second, David says that because God
is his Shepherd he has no deficiencies, ‘I
shall not want.’ The Hebrew word for want is ‘chausere’ – it means to lack nothing and is a
statement of satisfaction. David’s confidence is that if God is his Shepherd he
needs no one else. The hopes, longings
and dreams for his life are fully met in God. He is literally saying, ‘Because
the Lord is my Shepherd I need no other Shepherd.’ God is his all-satisfying One. He needs not prosperity, prominence, or
position.
But what kind of Shepherd is God? I have often said that the
best commentary on Scripture is Scripture itself. Consider Jesus’ story in Luke
15 – responding to criticism about His mingling with tax collectors and
sinners, Jesus responds with a story. It’s the story of a shepherd but it’s
also a story about the kind of Shepherd that He is. A Shepherd has 100 sheep and one goes
missing. The Shepherd leaves the 99 and goes off in search of the one. When He
finds the one, he places it upon his shoulders and returns home. After
returning home he calls his friends to a party to celebrate saying, ‘Rejoice
with me, I have found my sheep that was lost’. Then Jesus connects it – there is
similar rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents. Jesus teaches us
something important about the ‘kind’ of Shepherd God is to His people. In John
10 Jesus adds another level, ‘I am the Good
Shepherd...the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep’.
So, if God is the kind of Shepherd who pursues us...loves us...and dies
for us, then surely He is a capable enough Shepherd upon whom we can, ‘Cast all our anxiety on Him
because He cares for us.’ Have
you cast that burden yet?
Rediscovering
God together,
Keith
M. Doyle
