Lord, I Want to Know You A 5-Day Reading Plan from Kay ArthurSampl

God Our Shepherd

There are times when I think, How can someone like me succeed? Yet, these thoughts don’t devastate me because I know where success comes from. It doesn’t matter what I am. It only matters who God is, because He is all I need! He is my Jehovah-raah, the Lord my Shepherd. And because the Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. 

Oh, what a marvelous revelation the Spirit of God gave us as He breathed these words through the pen of David! It’s much better to cling to the precepts of God than to maxims or positive thinking, because He has magnified His Word above His name (Psalm 138:2). 

What does God think about us? Many things—and all of them are precious (Psalm 139:17-18). Yet, His thoughts are based on an honest evaluation of what we are like. 

We are like sheep. Over and over again God refers to us as sheep: “All we like sheep have gone astray” (Isaiah 53:6). “My sheep hear my voice” (John 10:27). “We are...the sheep of His pasture” (Psalm 100:3). “I...will both search my sheep, and seek them out” (Ezekiel 34:11). “Feed my sheep” (John 21:17). 

All the positive thoughts in the world can’t change the fact that sheep are sheep. Sheep are the dumbest of all animals. They are helpless, timid, and feeble. They require constant attention and meticulous care. Sheep have little means of self-defense. 

What makes the difference in sheep is the shepherd. 

Even though we do dumb things, even though we are not perfect, even though we all stumble in many ways (James 3:2), we can succeed because the Lord is our Shepherd. God designed us as we are so that we would see our need of Him. In Him, we find all that we need. Thus, we can say with total confidence and conviction, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1). 

As you read through Psalm 23, make a list of all that Jehovah-raah does for His sheep.