The twenty-third Psalm, despite its brevity, has a comprehensiveness that truly shows forth the Lord’s own Authorship. There is not a condition or circumstance in life that it doesn’t touch upon! In capsule form it covers the joys, and it covers the sorrows. It covers the testings, and it covers the victories. It deals with the matters that are day-by-day, and it deals with the matters that are eternal. And yet, the precious coverage of this Psalm has no application to us at all unless we have the Shepherd as our very own….
“I am the Good Shepherd; the Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.” (John 10:11)
“…the Son of God…loved me, and gave Himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)
Have you put all your trust in Him alone as your Saviour-Shepherd? Are you relying on nothing else for your merit to enter Heaven?
If you have any uncertainty at all about eternity and about the Good Shepherd being your very own, go to Him in prayer and ask His forgiveness for all your sins, and ask Him to save you…to indwell you…to make you his own.
If you mean it, and truly believe that He is the very Son of God, that He died on the cross to pay for your sins, and rose again, then He will become your Saviour…and your Shepherd.
And then you can know the wonders and assurances of this Psalm through personal experience! You can say, “The Lord is my Shepherd”–and say it not with a question mark, but with an exclamation point!
(from The Shepherd Psalm for a Freeway Culture by Allegra McBirney)