Archive article 30

The Lord is my Shepherd

“I shall lack nothing”

Quite recently there was a major insert in our town’s leading newspaper reporting the prosperity of mankind across the last 10 years. With a series of articles it described how our world, although still plagued with various difficulties ‘had never been better’. Sure poverty was still a major concern for mankind, but in global terms, humanity had reaped immense benefits from better education, the availability of better functioning health systems, more efficient means of communication and so on. Although not yet Utopia, the last 10 years were the best ever for Mankind.

Is this what these 4 short words from Psalm 23 mean? When they follow the preceding declaration “The Lord is my Shepherd”, does it mean that we will live without problems? If share by Mankind, does it promise a sort of immunity from disaster and catastrophe, the size of which seems to have increased in recent months and years in various parts of our world?

Obviously not. The Bible itself recounts many difficult situations for many people – physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. Job himself would probably head the list of heroes, but the apostle Paul also lived through incredibly difficult and traumatic times. Just a quick read of what he writes in his letter to the Church at Corinth makes us shudder:

“ Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea. I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles, in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea, and in danger from false brothers. I have laboured and toiled and have often gone without sleep. I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food. I have been cold and naked. . .”

New Testament – 1 Corinthians 11:24-27

What do we do with the words “I shall lack nothing” when we read such a list of difficulties? Is God promise false? Is it just a religious ideal and nothing more – some kind of idealisation of Christianity which doesn’t relate to a real world?

Actually it’s the apostle Paul himself who gives us the right way to understand what God promises in Psalm 23. It’s he who writes in another letter to another church: “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed of hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.” (Philippians 4:12)

It’s not what someone has or doesn’t have which is the real measurement of need. It’s the presence of the Shepherd which makes the difference! It’s this fact that lets him write the astonishing words:

“ I can do everything through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13)

Our town’s newspaper described a state of well-being around the world which has never been more widely possible – and yet, even so, humanity is so fragile. David, the Psalmist, describes a privilege which belongs to those who belong to the Lord so that even in spite of their human frailness, they have a resource which will never let them down. The words of Psalm 46 are powerfully true for them: “God is our refuge and strength – an ever present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea. . .” No, we can know that we will lack nothing. . . God is with us!

Dear reader, please don’t think God promises something he can’t give. Even through the worst of times He will be with us if He’s our Shepherd.

                                           Pastor Paul Finch