The Story of Jesus Christ

“There is no problem that can be solved without God’s intervention. He looks for us to acknowledge that. His love for us is so unconditional that sometimes we get in his way. We inevitably set ourselves up for failures and set ourselves up for disappointments. Friends, if our lives are not going according to plan, it’s because we did not want it to be true. We chose to come into someone else’s hands in some manner and we did so without apparent foresight.”

Well, that’s wonderful, life is full of such potential and imagination for the most part, and to be honest I am quite glib and happy for most of what I have. I like the sound of it, the plan, as much as the next person possibly could like the sound of it and the next person is no less glib and life is so liberating when you have something planned.

I wondered who the author was of course…

“The Lord is my shepherd and I shall not want. He makes me both secure and relaxed.”

The Psalmist’s Psalm 23 is the Feast of Tabernacles and the author reveals much about his life, this is verbatim in many of the Psalms.

Psalm 23 – The Lord is My shepherd, I shall not want

The author refers to the Lord as my shepherd. This in turn brings us to the role of christ as the Good Shepherd.

Christ’s role is to protect and keep the sheep, and I might add as the author pointed out that sheep like to be with their flock.

A number of the Psalms which are in the book of Psalms 26 through 40 refer to our spiritual needs, and the author emphasized this in this Psalm.

The author speaks in reflection of Jesus who said, “I am the good shepherd” John 10:11 (NIV)

The author refers to God as the shepherd of his heart, and the possibility of his knowing the flock.

The various qualities of the author’s life illustrate a point. The Psalmist refers to Jesus as his every shepherd, (v. 54,6). In the same verse (v. 56) the writer refers to his Saviour as the good shepherd. The author sees both as Shepherd, and both are responsible for his well-being.

Since we humans like notions of shepherd and sheep, perhaps the best image we can imagine is that provided by our pastor at a Sunday morning service.

The pastor is representing his flock in their failing health, with frail hearts and outdated thinking. We see a wrong-headed pastoral personality as someone who can’t help these weak souls. To rectify their problems, the pastor is forced to spend vast amounts of monies resources to fix something he can’t fix. He was a pastor long before he was called to take the place of ‘good shepherd’, and hence the title of my bold compliment.

Some pastors’ hopes seem to rest on their pastoral infallibility. The ordinary church member cannot help but notice the obvious superficiality in their pastoral leadership.

But a pastor’s name and word have much greater worth. The name of Jesus Christ is worth much more than flimsy pastoral letters, and equally flimsy ‘news’ letters. The word of God which lives and prospers is worth much more than embarrassingly sensationalized one piece of text.

Proverbs 16:18 (NIV) says, “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”

God’s word and character are wholly reliable and fulfilled to the letter of his promises. God is no respecter of persons. He listens to and speaks the heart.

The word of the Lord is dependable and capable of enduring the fire and the flood. His word cannot be extinguished and no man can snuff it out.

The ancient Coptic Christians affixed great value, if not credence, to the character of their God. His words were trustworthy and fraught with eternal significance.

Sided with the truth, the tongue of the tongue is accustomed to speaking good to one’s enemies, and an outworking of his words is usually positive in nature.

Mark 6:28-29 (ESV) Hearing a brother to Thomas, Jesus said, “Thomas, because you have seen me that you have believed, have you believed?”