Psalm 23
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake. Yea,though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For you are with me;Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; And I will dewll in th house of the Lord Forever.


Sheep are very interesting animals in that they must fully rely upon the shepherd for everything. These are animals that can not simply make it on their own. They do not function well under stress and get afraid very easly. (sound familiar)
We have read this Psalm over and over. It is one we are very familiar with. I am sure you have heard many great teachings on this and I am not going to spend a whole lot of time taking it apart. But there are somethings that I would like to pull out to remind us of our relationship with the LORD.
You see I have had a very busy week, a week that is not over yet and in this week I have seen so many times where I have been wanting? I have felt week, I have felt overwhelmed at times but I relaized one thing and it was this. At those moments I took my eyes off of my Shepherd and more on my surrounding. This action of mine created in me a wanting, this action of mine taking my eyes off of the Lord for a moment created in me a fear, and uneasy feeling, a overwhelming drowning feeling. This is not How God wants me to be, This is not how I should be. Psalm 23 tells me “ The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. I must say something here, because not everyone can say The Lord is my Shepherd. You must first know the Good Shepherd in Psalm 22 who laid down His life for you so that He could become your shepherd. If you do not know Jesus as your shepherd if you can not say I have a relationship with Jesus then I invite you to make that clear. He laid down His life for you that you might have everlasting life and enter into this relationship that I am talking about .
This relationship of knowing the Shepherd and being known by the Shepherd. For Jesus tells us in John 10:14 “ I am the good shepherd;and I know My sheep, and am known by my own.”
Psalm 23 talks of my relationship with the Shepherd it is a He and me Psalm
verse 1: He is my shepherd,
verse 2. He makes me to lie down, He leads me
verse 3. He restores me
verse 4. though I walk in danger I fear not for He is with me He protects me and comforts me
verse 5. He prepares a wonderful table before me, He annoints me, my cup overflows
verse 6. His goodness and mercy they follow me, I dwell with Him in His house forever.

David in this Psalm describes what the Shepherd does for the sheep and how in all that the Shepherd does the sheep are simply enjoying it. Look The sheep do not lack anything verse 1 tells us that I shall not want. Why?
Because the shepherd He makes me to lie down in Green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. A sheep who is by still waters and in green pastures and is laying down shows you what, That the sheep is completley satisfied, Jesus said that He is our sufficiency “ And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst” John 6:35
You see I was reminded this week that He has provided all that I need, I was stressing out for nothing He had it all under controll He was leading me and guiding me He was going to take care of it all, and you want to know something HE DID!
Hey I was reminded of How Good my Shepherd is I hope you realize it too, Learn to enjoy and be satisfied with the green pasture and still waters He has brought you too, Know that no matter where you are or what difficulty you are going thru He is there, remember His goodness and His mercy are with you He is your protector and your comforter. And that soon and very soon you and I will be in His house FOREVER!!!!
JH