GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
PSALM 23:1
1 The LORD is my shepherd. There is nothing else I need.
What a wonderful thing, to be content. Do we think that only a simple person, a child perhaps, could be content? But to be simple is not to be inferior. To want less and to have less is not the same as being a lesser person. Knowing that one has everything one needs in Jesus is simply being a Christian.
Leaders are called shepherds in different places in the Bible. Ezekiel 34 calls all Israel’s leaders (prophets, priests, and kings) shepherds. God is called the Shepherd of Israel many times. Jacob was fond of calling God his shepherd (Genesis 48:50; 49:24). Micah used shepherd language when he described the coming Christ (Micah 7:14), and Peter used shepherd language when he described Christ who had come (1 Peter 2:35; 5:24). Zechariah prophesied that when Christ the Shepherd was struck down, his “sheep will be scattered” (Zech. 13:7; Mark 14:27).
And we even scatter ourselves. We have sinned. We wander. We search and we seek — and we constantly think, we Christians who should be content, “If only I had one more thing, then I would be happy.” We set so many goals in our lives that we have forgotten how to be content with who we are, with where we are, and with what we have.
But Jesus goes and looks for us, and carries us back (Luke 15:54-5). After describing himself as the Gate for the Sheep (John 10:7-10), Jesus went on to tell us this:
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me — 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father — and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life — only to take it up again.” (John 10:11-17)
Jesus is our shepherd. There is nothing else we need.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota