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Psaalm 23:1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” (KJV, NKJV, ESV, NASB)
“The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.” (NET, NIV)
“Jehovah is my shepherd, I shall not want.” (ASV)
“The Lord is my shepherd, I have everything I need.” (GNB)
“God, my shepherd! I don’t need a thing.” (MSG)
“The Lord is my shepherd, I have all that I need.” (NLT)
This may be the best-known Scripture in the Bible....maybe even better known than Genesis 1:1. We hear this verse at every funeral. Songs have been written about it. There have been some really great sermons delivered about the Shepherd that have resounded though church history. Memorize this one, even if it is easy. Keep it close to your heart.
No man knew better about the relationship between the Shepherd and his sheep than David of the Old Testament. The Shepherd protected the sheep, led them, corrected them and maybe even came to love them. In our modern day, we have a hard time identifying with David’s sentiment here. The closest thing we might come to shepherding is our children. And, all troubles and heartache aside, there probably isn’t very much we wouldn’t do to ensure their safety, growth and love.
I was touched at the funeral of my own mother at the reading by the minister who delivered Psalm 23. I have known my dear Brother Joe Greene for all my life. I can’t think of a better man for my father to have chosen to deliver that message than Brother Joe. I love him, maybe more than any other person outside my own family because of all he has meant to me over all the years of my life. I also love him because he so closely resembles and models the servant-Shepherd love of our Jesus. So, it deeply touched me at mom’s funeral when he quoted, “The Lord is MY shepherd…” I knew instantly what he was trying to say.
As close as I have come to my parents, siblings, even Brother Joe in my life, I know the Lord as MY Shepherd. I don’t know if you know the Lord that intimately or not. I hope you do. Because, when you do, it touches you when you are reminded of the personal, deep, loving care we receive from the very creator of the universe who I can call MY Shepherd. No wonder David says in Psalm 8:4, “What is man that though art mindful of him”…..yet, my Jesus is mindful of me every moment of every day. He is MY Shepherd.
Now, like David I need to follow this If/Then statement up with the rest of the thought. The Lord is MY Shepherd, therefore I shall not want. That’s a pretty huge statement! Especially in our western, materialistic-oriented society, to say that I will not want is hard to realize, maybe even harder to live out.
A silly commercial on TV shows a woman, Ms. More who no matter what she is doing or receiving is saying, “I want more!” As a life-long collector of “stuff,” I can identify with that thought.
When we are poor and think we have great need, it is easy to say, “I want more.” More to our problem as Americans, we say, “I want more” because we know we can have it. We have been so blessed as a nation.
It is not an exaggeration to say America is the richest nation in the world. Yet, no matter how much we have, we always seem to think we don’t yet have enough…especially when we can be convinced that what we think we want is always within our reach.
Paul stated that he knew that whatever state or situation he was in, he could be content. He learned how to have and how to have nothing. Here’s a verse to add to your memory: 1 Timothy 6:6 says, “But godliness with contentment is great gain.” Yet even in the church, we tend to act like the most discontented lot in the world. This ought not to be.
One could assume that the reason we can be so discontented with our lot in life is because our “shepherd” isn’t enough for us. When the shepherd was near, the sheep were contented and wanted for nothing.
I need Jesus to be enough for me that I want nothing more! How foreign is that concept to you? “Jesus is my Shepherd, but I want Him to give me a wife or husband!” Jesus is enough for me but I really need/want a new car…or any car.” “I love the Lord. I will follow Him anywhere, but the way we are heading just doesn’t seem like what I WANT in my life.” The problem isn’t the Shepherd. It is our “want.”
Draw close to Jesus. Draw closer every day. Make Him all in your life. Give up a few of those things you just thought you couldn’t live without. Oh my, if He told me to sell all I have and give it to the poor and follow Him, would I do it?
The reason the shepherd had to leave the 99 and go pursue the one lost sheep was because the sheep didn’t think the shepherd was enough for him not to want something, somewhere else. How we desperately need to learn to become so dependent on the Shepherd, so in love with his care for us, so devoted to following Him that it becomes very easy for us to at least eventually get to the point where we can confess, “I do not have any wants.”
Questions to Ponder: Explain the difference between our wants and our needs. David wrote of his Shepherd and learning not to want in Psalm 23. How long did that last for David? What do you remember that David wanted that the Shepherd wasn’t enough for? To yourself, confess the things that take the place of the Shepherd in your life that just seem like “wants.” Be honest enough to realize what you need to do to get rid of everything that might replace the Shepherd’s ability to make us realize what we really do not want. Is that achievable in our lives? Is that a type of living or just a distant dream? What might you need to give up so the Shepherd can become enough for you?
Other texts/Scriptures to examine on the topic: 1 Tim 6:6-11 “…and having food and raiment let us be therewith content.” Phil 4:11-13 “…I know how to be abased and I know how to abound.” Luke 18:22-25 “…sell all that thou hast.”
 
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