City Life Starter

I. The Word: Psalm 23

1The Lord is my shepherd,

I shall not want.

2He makes me lie down in green pastures;

He leads me beside quiet waters.

3He restores my soul;

He guides me in the paths of righteousness

For His name’s sake.

4Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I fear no evil, for You are with me;

Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

5You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

You have anointed my head with oil;

My cup overflows.

6Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life,

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

The richness and depth of the Bible never cease to amaze me. I’ve been reading Psalm 23 for years, but as I was studying it this week I saw something I’ve never seen before. As I read through each verse following the declaration that “The Lord is my shepherd,” what jumped off the page was the verb in each sentence that followed.

The Lord “makes,” “leads,””restores,” “guides,” “provides,” and “anoints.” In other words, The Lord was active in demonstrating His love and care for David. The collective effect of God’s conduct toward David was apparently reassuring because it is after this bullet-pointed list of evidence of the Lord’s love that David draws the only logical conclusion. David sign-posts that conclusion with the word “Surely.” He could have said “therefore,””thus,” or “clearly” and conveyed the same idea, but “surely” is probably best. From all the Lord did for David, It was inescapable to David that the Lord’s goodness and mercy would follow him all his days and he would spend eternity with the Lord.

David knew adversity. David had walked through the valley of the shadow of death, but the Lord’s presence comforted him. David had to endure the presence of enemies who sought to kill him, but the Lord provided for him in the midst of those of those enemies. David knew the goodness of God did not mean the absence of adversity but His presence and provision in the midst of it.

Application

Interestingly, the statements David makes about the Lord, punctuated with the conduct David attributes to the Lord, are not mere theological propositions. They all appear to be rooted in events from David’s life where he experienced the faithfulness, love, and mercy of the Lord. It was from those experiences David could draw his conclusions about the goodness of God. David could say the Lord was his shepherd because the Lord had been his shepherd.

When I started out as a Christian most, if not, all of what I believed about the Lord’s nature came from what I read in the Bible. My basis for trusting the Lord was good was because of what I read about Him. Now after many years of following the Lord, my trust in Him has become more rooted in His leading, guiding, restoring of, and providing for, me.  I know the Lord is good because I have experienced His goodness.

If you are a younger Christian or just starting out, I encourage you to approach the Lord as the Great Shepherd, as someone who will lead and guide, anoint and provide. As you put your trust in Him, seek Him for guidance and provision, He will respond an show Himself faithful. You will then begin to build a lifetime of experiences that will become a basis for a deeper trust in Him so that one day you will be able to say with confidence, “Surely His goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life.”