Dr. D's Devotional
Title: Ps 23.1
by Dennis Reschke
Ps 23.1
In light of President Bush's speech last night, mentioning
Ps 23, I've decided to suspend the discussion of finances for a bit. The
godly principles of finance, however, have nothing to do with the economy
or the situation at hand. God's ways are higher than ours (Is 55:9) and
we can access them by His Spirit (1Cor 2:10) and thereby give Him glory
on the earth (John 15:7,8).
Ps. 23:1 "The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want." Notice it does
not say "God is my shepherd" it says the LORD. There's a difference. Lord
connotes relationship, obedience, mentoring, care, fear..., whereas God
connotes an impersonal all powerful being perhaps aloof from the human predicament.
Unless Jesus, the Father, and the Holy spirit are your Lord, this psalm
does not apply to you, even though you may be born again. And even if you
say He is your Lord with your mouth but do not do what He says, you may
not even be in the kingdom (Matt 7:22,23). For God to be Lord in your life
there must be a relationship, communication, give and take, love .... in
short, all the attributes we as humans experience with each other in our
relationships and more.
As Lord, He is our shepherd. Do you believe that?
What does a shepherd do? Well, the rest of the psalm more or less spells
that out. He protects us from evil, for one. There was a guy in a church
once who was having sex with his mother (1Cor 5:1). God's remedy to this
was to temporarily remove him from the corporate protection of the church
(v.5). Why? so that he would repent. Sometimes God has to get our attention
in this way. The point for us here is that there is a corporate protection
afforded us by faith in the church body. To be independent of this protection
doesn't annul our relationship with God as a son or daughter, it does, however,
put us in a vulnerable position. We our open game, so to speak, for the
devil. It's kind of like a soldier who wanders away from his platoon. He's
still in the army, he still has his gun, etc., but he's easy prey for the
enemy to pick him off without anyone even knowing. If God is our shepherd,
then we ought to act like it, believe it, speak it, and thank Him for it.
If you don't... what does it mean He is our shepherd.
As our shepherd,
He supplies our needs, we will not be in want. Christians love to quote
Phil 3:19 "But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches
in glory by Christ Jesus." If you read the context of this passage you will
note that it was spoken in regards to giving. As we give to others materially,
THEN our needs will be met. All the promises of God are conditional: we
do our part and God will do His. "But I thought we can't work our way to
heaven?" That's true, but we're already in heaven as born again believers
(Eph 2:6). There is a work for believers to do, that is to believe (John
6:29). And not just believe, but to believe and do things God's ways, not
the way we think are God's ways: 2Tim. 2:5 "Similarly, if anyone competes
as an athlete, he does not receive the victor's crown unless he competes
according to the rules."
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