I don’t know
about you, but I can’t think about Valentine’s Day without the image of these
heart-shaped boxes popping into my head.
I always felt like these boxes were the food version of Russian
roulette….each candy was an unknown and the only way to find out if you were
going to like each piece was to take a little bite out of it.
In the movie
Forrest Gump, one of Forrest’s most infamous lines is “Momma always said life
is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you’re gonna get”. There’s some words of wisdom there….
While I
wouldn’t call myself a control freak, I’m definitely a planner. I always want
to know what the next step is and where I’m heading in the grand scheme of
things. That being said, sometimes it’s hard to trust the Lord in the unknown,
but Psalm 23 calls Him our Shepherd.
I honestly
never spent much time studying the 23rd Psalm until this year. Until now I really only associated that text
with funerals, but we’ve been in Psalms 23 for several weeks in Children’s
church and its definitely challenged the control freak or “planner” inside of
me.
This Psalm
is usually classified as a psalm of confidence in the Lord’s care. In other words, it’s about trusting that God
is in control and will take care of you. Unfortunately, if you’re anything like
me, you’d rather have a “guide” telling you all the answers so that you can
know what flavor each piece of candy is before you commit or take that step of
faith.
But a
Shepherd cares for His sheep; He guides them, and the sheep’s job is simply to
follow. Sheep are always called
stupid…I’ve been told that they’ll even get themselves stuck in a corner and
are too dumb to realize that all they need to do is back up. They NEED a Shepherd, but so do we.
Those first
four verses tell us that we can trust Him.
We don’t have to know everything that the future holds, because we have
a Shepherd that will guide and protect us; we just have to follow and obey
Him.
Verses 5
& 6 tell us that the Lord cares for His people. Verse 6 says that God’s goodness and love
follow us all the days of our lives. While
we, like sheep are easily distracted from the Shepherd’s direction, His
goodness and love never leave us. We can
trust the Shepherd with our hearts even when life is unpredictable and we never
know what we’re gonna get.
1 The Lord is my
shepherd, I lack nothing.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
3 he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
for his name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk
through the darkest valley,[a]
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
3 he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
for his name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk
through the darkest valley,[a]
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6 Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6 Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.
