A Sunday school teacher asked her class if any of them could quote Psalm 23. A little girl raised her hand. She stood up and said: “The Lord is my shepherd, and that’s all I want.” She had the right idea! David is essentially telling us that God is his shepherd and He’s all he wanted. He trusted God! God was all that David wanted! And Psalm 23 was David’s way of telling us that he knew how much God loved Him and protected him.Now most of us have trouble with that trusting God. Surveys have shown that the majority of Americans believe that God doesn’t like us or doesn’t really care what happens to us. They do not really believe that “The Lord Is My Shepherd, I shall not want.”This reminds us of the parable Jesus told in Matthew 25:24-30 about a man who decided to go on a journey, so he left responsibilities to three of his servants. To one he gave 10 talents, to the second he gave 5 talents, and to the third he gave 1 talent. Now that was a lot of money—lots of responsibility. When he returned he called in his servants for an accounting of how they had managed their responsibilities. The first two servants had managed to double the money, while the third simply hid his one talent.The third servant claimed that the master was a difficult and hard taskmaster, so out of fear he simply hid the money. Now the master replied, “You wicked, lazy servant!” He said, at least he should have invested it for the interest. So the third servant was cast out. Jesus then immediately tells them about the judgment in verses 31 to 48 where He describes separating the “sheep from the goats.” Jesus’ point was the necessity of doing God’s will, of following His example. The third servant did not choose to do what his master had instructed so he was condemned.So let’s look back at Psalm 23. He describes God as leading him. “He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” Now sheep need a shepherd to guide and lead them. David is saying that that is how we are—we need a Good Shepherd!But unlike sheep, we have a choice. We can choose to follow the leading of ...
