Grace In The Valley By Heath AdamsonSample

Day 4

The Lord Is My Shepherd

Isaiah 40:11

The Lord is my shepherd. Like a helpless and wandering sheep, the shepherd boy turned king opens Psalm 23 by referring to God as his shepherd. David recognizes that regardless of where he ends up, he is led there by and with an unseen certainty. His shepherd, the Good Shepherd, is with him. He is led by One who cares deeply where he ends up.

David does not refer to God as his king. In his moment of brokenness, David is not looking for a powerful God to set him free from his situation. He hearkens back to his years as a young shepherd. In those years ultimately he was hidden by God. Sometimes, when we feel alone, God has us to himself. As a shepherd, David learned a lot about God. In this moment, those memories comforted him. 

Do you remember those moments with God when it was simple? Before most of your contemporaries and friends questioned the things you were eager to embrace? Maybe you long to get back to the time when God wasn’t just your Lord, Savior, King, or Judge. He is those things. Scripture testifies as such.

But he is also the One who dwells with the brokenhearted. He rescued the woman caught in adultery. He looked at Judas the night he was betrayed and still called him “friend.” He is our Shepherd and, though shepherding was not a respected vocation throughout Scripture, he is not offended to be so. God identifies with us in our mess. He is not insecure. He is pure love. He can handle it when we identify with him in language we can relate to. 

This is what David is doing when he opens Psalm 23. He is going back to those moments in his life when he felt God’s presence because, at the time he wrote Psalm 23, God’s presence was disguised as God’s absence.

When you wonder if the situation you’re in is too small for God to care about or too big for him to provide for, just remember the Shepherd. Shepherds take a lowly occupation to care for sheep and, like David, this Shepherd can and will fend off even the fiercest of beasts to protect you.

Recall a moment in your life when God’s goodness was clear to you. Are you willing to believe his love for you might still be true?