The Lord is My Shepherd

Out west we have had wars between cattlemen and sheepmen. To think of being a sheep is anathema to some people. We pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. We can get ‘er or make ‘em bite if you have an oilfield background. We don’t think we need anyone to help us but God knows better. He made us needy. If we’re women we think we can have kids, raise kids and still work a full time job or two without a male influence. Men think of themselves as independent of anyone else including wives and anyone else. But one day something will happen to help us to see our need. Getting sick or hurt is a quick way to realize we are all dependent on others. We think we’re the smartest tool in the box and we got our jobs on our own.

However, if we think we got our jobs because we are the smartest we soon realize our brain cells were a gift from the Almighty when He knit us together in our mothers’ wombs. If we are smart, we should thank God. But sometimes the smartest people aren’t the winners we think they should be. Ecclesiastes 9:11 reads “… the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happens to them all.” If God doesn’t open the doors they don’t open. Daniel 4:17 reads “… the most High rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whomsoever he wills and sets up over it the basest of men.” (Whew! Think political leadership.)

So when we read the Lord is our shepherd, I shall not want (Psalm 23:1), we realize if God didn’t help us get a job, we might not have the blessings of the food we eat. How do people end up living on the streets? Are they all stupid? Or did time and chance happen to them? God gives us all things that pertain to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3) through the knowledge of God’s Word made flesh, Jesus Christ.

If God sets up the basest of men as rulers over us, it’s no joke that 1 Timothy 2:2 enjoins us to first of all pray for kings and all those in authority (police, judges, bosses, preachers, teachers, parents) that we may lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty.