The Lord Is My Shepherd, I Shall Not Want

By Beth White

“Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you’” (Psalm 16:1).

There is great beauty in these words of David. What freedom he must have felt, acknowledging that his goodness, his well-being, his very life were the Lord’s to worry over and not his own.

Of course in David’s time, Jesus had not yet spoken the Sermon on the Mount; God’s people had never heard their Savior, in the flesh, lovingly explain the reason why striving to care for yourself is a fruitless endeavor. “For the Gentiles seek after all these things,” He reminded them, “and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:32-33). But David knew the ways of his good Father. He trusted, with the simplicity of a man unstained by the world (James 1:27), that his God carried him as a man carries his son (Deuteronomy 1:31).

Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. That’s it. Before anything else. Before deciding what good needs to be done in the world or which party deserves our vote or what on earth we’re going to do with our kids all day every day now that school is remaining closed: seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Life gets a whole lot simpler when we think of it that way.

Our Shepherd is with us. We must train ourselves to hear His voice. The temptations of the world hold no power over the one who dwells deeply with his Lord, secure in the knowledge that He guides his steps. Unfortunately, the world speaks louder, and it requires a great deal of discipline to quiet ourselves and seek the guidance of our Master. How easy it is to go about our day trusting in our own knowledge of right and wrong, thinking that we are the masters of our own lives. How difficult it is to find the time to drink from the Living Water that gives wisdom and righteousness. But we must beware of forgetting who the Lord is. Psalm 50 warns, “These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.” We must take seriously the deceitfulness of our own hearts (Jeremiah 17:9).

Let us cry out with David, “Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth!” (Psalm 86:11). When we despise the world with all its worry and shame, we find rest. Take comfort; your Father sees you. He remembers you. You may wish to achieve a desired result; He sees beyond the surface and works toward something infinitely better. Seek His kingdom and His righteousness, and you will find yourself transformed.

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