I Shall Not Want

It is easy to wonder if Jesus might have been thinking about the 23rd Psalm when He spoke those words recorded by John, "I am the Good Shepherd.  The Good Shepherd lays His life down for the sheep."  (John 10:11)  While we can never know, we can know He was surely acquainted with this Word written so long ago by David, the shepherd boy who became a King.  Most of us know very little about the habits of sheep, or the life of a shepherd, but the writer of these words grew up among them and cared for them before he went to fight Goliath.    

The beginning words are words of great comfort and confidence.  There is no question or doubt held forth in these words.  "The Lord is my Shepherd,"   and because such is true, "I shall not want."  (Psalm 23:1)  It is not just a word about provision, but more importantly a word about trust.  With the Lord being before us in the manner of the Shepherd, there is nothing to fear.  As sheep are dependent upon the shepherd for safety, so can we know that we are safe in the hands of the Shepherd of our Soul.    

We may not understand everything there is to know about God, but we can know that He is trustworthy.  He is not one who disappoints us by changing His mind about what He has said He will do.  He will continue to be Who He has always been.  His nature is kind and full of grace and mercy.  It is His nature to hold on to us and to seek us when we wander off the path.   With Him looking out after us and caring for us, there may be some things which we want that are not given to us, but never is it true that what we need for the life of our soul is denied us.  When our soul rest in the hands of its Creator, it lives inside the words, "I shall not want."