My Shepherd

Transcript

Hello, my friend… so glad you're with me today. This is By God's Call — day 230, My Shepherd.

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters." Psalm 23, verses 1 and 2.

Just let that land for a moment.

David did not write this from a distance. He wrote it from the field — with hands that had carried injured lambs, with eyes that had watched the flock scatter in the dark. When he says "the Lord is my shepherd," he is not reciting a doctrine. He is declaring something he lived. Something earned in the wilderness, in the palace, in the valleys he never expected to walk through.

And notice what he says. Not "a shepherd." My shepherd. Personal. Intimate. As if the God of all creation had bent low over one single sheep — his — and said: I know you by name.

You can say that today too. Not as an empty formula. As a living declaration, born from faith.

"I shall not want." Now hear this carefully — this is not a promise of wealth. It is not a guarantee that nothing will go wrong. It is something far deeper. It is the promise of sufficiency. Whoever has the Shepherd has what truly matters. The deepest lack a human being can feel is not a lack of money, or health, or success — it is a lack in the soul. And that lack finds its answer in Him.

So He makes us lie down in green pastures. Not because life is easy — David's was not, and neither is yours. But because the Lord knows what the soul needs to be restored. And letting yourself be led, my friend — that is not weakness. That is the greatest act of faith there is. To release control. To trust the path He has chosen.

And the still waters — this moves me every time. Sheep do not drink from turbulent water. They drown in it. The Shepherd does not take the flock to just any riverbank. He knows their fragility — and He brings them to quiet water. Not with impatience. With tenderness. Not with judgment. With care. He knows your fragility the same way. Not as a flaw that disqualifies you — as a reality He holds gently. And He leads you with that same care.

And there is one thing more. Jesus — the same Jesus of the cross, of the resurrection — declared Himself the Good Shepherd. Said He lays down His life for the sheep. Psalm 23 finds its fullest meaning in the light of that. The Shepherd who guides is also the Shepherd who rescued. He does not merely point the way — He paid the price so that you could walk it.

Today, my friend, do this: before breakfast — before you look at your phone, before the noise of the day reaches you — say out loud: "The Lord is my shepherd." Let the words leave your mouth with conviction. And then, surrender to Him one area of your life where you have been trying to lead yourself. You know the one. It does not have to be enormous. It has to be real. Place it in His hands — and let the Shepherd shepherd.

Stay close to God. Pray — then act. I'll see you tomorrow, my friend.