THE writer of this Psalm is David, and what’s good about this verse is that it’s a fresh testimony of David’s relationship with the Lord, it’s not a rigid religious memo from above that requires everyone to say the same. The verse speaks of David’s declaration that the Lord is his shepherd, he did not say the Lord is our shepherd, or the Lord should be your shepherd.
You can sense David’s delight flowing from this declaration, it comes from the heart that is fully convinced on the credibility of this Shepherd whom David identifies as the Lord. While we are all overloaded with a lot of sermons and reading materials about spiritual matters, something is not authentic when we are contended to live from a borrowed spiritual experience of others. I think this verse will come to its full effect until you and I can personally say in faith that indeed the Lord is our shepherd! David’s experience is uniquely his, but the Lord of David the same Lord that is available for us today.
Learning from the experience of others is a legit way of knowing spiritual lessons, besides no one can claim originality what we know and what we have, somehow lessons and insights are passed on to many, then it reaches us. Encountering the Lord on the other had is uniquely an individual affair, yet it also mysteriously connected to the larger community. Meaning whatever happens to you and me on the personal level will somehow greatly affect a lot of people within the webs of our relationships.
David’s declaration about The Lord being his Shepherd will soon not be limited to David, out of this personal encounter is a contagious influence to many that they too will say The Lord is our Shepherd. David’s life is a big mess, one thing David never enjoyed, is a complete happy family, his morality is a big mess too, his desires and passion in many ways went overboard than the intention of God, he made a lot of foolish choices and paid lifelong consequences from it.
If David is a mess, that too qualifies us to make more mess? I believe that’s an excess; I think the lesson here is that messy people can cry to God and can come to the Lord the Shepherd of the messy! It’s not a license to create more mess, rather it’s a liberating truth that messy people can be redeemed! The remarkable fruit of having the Lord as David’s shepherd is that he makes another big-time declaration “I have all that I need” ... whoa! Having the Lord in David’s life as his Shepherd, meaning a God-dependent existence makes David CONTENTED because God is all he needs! This is something no one can rebut nor require because this is a testimony not something ram to other people’s throat! Either you disregard this as fake news or give it a chance to be a venue of being spiritually awakened.
Before David can say the Lord is my Shepherd, there’s got to be a meeting between the sheep and the Shepherd. It’s a pattern in the bible that it’s always God who initiates this kind of relationship. Though God initiates, we see a big space for people to respond. Sparing you with all the details, David chose to say that the Lord is His Shepherd, it’s a shepherd sheep relationship where the sheep really depends on the Shepherd for his survival in life. In the same manner, you and I must come to a realization individually that indeed I desire to enter into this kind of a God-dependent life. Because of this David now can say boldly “I have everything I need”. The second statement “I have everything I need” comes from having the Lord as Shepherd! Whether this discovery and declaration come spontaneously or a progression of surprise doesn’t matter, what matters is a spiritual revolution has begun!
Worthy of all envy is the person who could say “The Lord is my Shepherd: I have all I need”. Please remember this is not just a logo, this is rooted in the gracious invitation of the Lord for messy people to come to Him and avail of the chance to be redeemed from the depth of our mess into the banquet of this redemption. I prayerfully hope that it will not take you too long, before it’s too late to say “The Lord is my Shepherd; I have everything I need.” In this journey here and life after, it’s really wise not to walk alone! And in this world of many desires and complications, it’s really liberating to say “I have all I need”. Never again, underestimate what a short verse can do, to a life full of mess.