“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want” (Psalm 23.1.)
Introduction. This sounds like a song because what comes from the heart always has melody in it. As ‘truth is stranger than fiction,’ the truth David spake is more sweet than fancy could have sported with. David could remember his tender care for the lambs. Now he makes use of that figure.
(1) Some Preliminaries. ‘The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.’ Before we can say these words, we must feel and acknowledge that we resemble sheep. We shall be conscious of our folly. A sheep is one of the most unwise of creatures. It will leave a fat pasture to wander in a barren one; it will find out many ways but not the right way; it would wander through a wood and right into the wolf’s jaws. No man can trust providence till he distrusts himself. If you are brought to confess that you are a silly sheep, I hope you will be able to say, ‘The Lord is my shepherd: he is enough for me.’ A sheep is not only foolish, but dependent. If you turn him loose, he will, unlike the horse, soon come to ruin. Do we perceive the necessity for our dependence on God? We sometimes fancy that we can do a little. But we cannot be independent of one another, much less of God. The Christian realizes the blessedness of his dependence. Some of you know you are sheep by reason of your frequent wanderings. It is something to feel our wanderings, for if we feel ourselves to have wandered, we shall certainly be brought back. People talk about free-will Christians coming back to Jesus of themselves. I intend to believe them when they find a free-will sheep bleating at his master’s door to be taken in again. You will not find such a thing.
(2) A Sweet Assurance. If every person here would rise up and say, ‘The Lord is my shepherd,’ I feel convinced that for many it would be the solemn utterance of an untruth. How, then, does a man come to know the Lord is his shepherd? If he has been brought from the haunts of evil or stopped in a mad career of vice, and has been reclaimed by the power of Jehovah Jesus, he knows by experience that the Lord is his shepherd. Further, he knows it by the interposition of Heaven. You were sunk into poverty, maybe, and deserted by friends and acquaintances, and your prayers went unanswered; but then you were delivered in a marvelous way that was foreign to your wishes. The people of God are a tried people. But how can you tell the Lord is your shepherd if you have not been tried in the great deeps? Because he has fed you day by day in a good pasture. I can prove that the Lord is my shepherd by his keeping me in the grassy field. Do not get despising the little ones because they have not had as many trials as you have.
(3) A Holy Confidence. Poor unbelief says, ‘I am wanting in both spirituals and temporals; and I shall want.’ David’s faith is rather preferable to your unbelief. Maybe you want more faith, love, and holiness. Most of God’s answers to our letters come down in black envelopes; yet mark you, they will come. “No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” Some insist that our text applies to temporal matters. But it does not say, ‘The Lord is your shepherd, and you shall not come down in society.’ He is my shepherd; I shall not really want that which is absolutely necessary. ‘The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.’ Beloved, if we could trade this promise for a world of gold, we would not. Do not give me ready money now; give me a checkbook, and let me draw what I need out of the riches of God’s fullness in Christ Jesus.
Selection from Conclusion. “Oh! it is enough to make men long for religion if it were only for that sweet placidity and calm of mind which it giveth here below.”
