The Lord Our Shepherd

The Lord is my shepherd;
    I have everything I need.
He lets me rest in fields of green grass
    and leads me to quiet pools of fresh water.
He gives me new strength.
He guides me in the right paths,
    as he has promised.
Even if I go through the deepest darkness,
    I will not be afraid, Lord,
    for you are with me.
Your shepherd's rod and staff protect me.

You prepare a banquet for me,
    where all my enemies can see me;
you welcome me as an honored guest
    and fill my cup to the brim.
I know that your goodness and love will be with me all my life;
    and your house will be my home as long as I live.

My Reflection: Is the LORD My Shepherd?

One of the questions we often finding ourselves asking especially during challenging and difficult moments is, “Is the Lord really my Shepherd?”

The answer is unequivocally “YES!” The Lord is our shepherd irrespective of the challenges we may be going through because Jesus Christ lay down his life for us and by so doing pave the way for eternal reconciliation with our God and the grace to cope with the difficulties of life here on earth.

And the Lord is our shepherd because as he said, “It is I who deal death and give life”, meaning our lives are in his hand and only the Lord, our God have the power over everything that we do under the sun.

This reflection is a simple attempt as I retrospect on some of my challenges in life and through them all was able to see the handiwork of the Lord who truly is my shepherd. The almighty God has continued to supply all my needs according to his riches in glory and not according to my expectations or limitations.

I am living a life that basically amazes me beyond words because of the infinite depth of God’s love, mercy and divine providence. My twin brother and I were born prematurely and never given the opportunity to live because of the high mortality rate for premature babies based on the no availability of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) facilities in the 70’s in my native town of Otukpo, Nigeria. If not for God, who is my shepherd I will not be here writing this reflection at all.

As I meditate on Psalm 23 or the Psalm of David based on its Hebrew Title, I cannot help but cherish the love that God has continued to manifest in our lives. Having being born prematurely, I understand the odds of survival especially as a result of the lack of or inadequacy of the lungs lubricant; the surfactant protein. In medical school this knowledge acquired during my course in Respiratory Physiology, enables me to refer to my God as “My Surfactant.”

The Lord is my shepherd; I have everything I need

Jesus Christ is the good shepherd that lay down his life for his sheep in order for them to have life and have it abundantly! Additionally, he told us to ask, seek and knock and we shall receive, find and the door will be open. Since I worship and believe in God and the intercession of my Lord and savior Jesus Christ, I therefore have everything I need to survive in this world and with a joyful expectation of the world to come.

He lets me rest in fields of green grass and leads me to quiet pools of fresh water

Life can be dangerous, difficult and sometimes very frustrating beyond express, nevertheless the presence of my God through Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son provide me with the peace that this world can never give. Through my labor and daily tasks and in spite of the frustrations, because I focus my attention on God rather than the challenges I faced, I am able to navigate from hateful, frustrating and inimical circumstances without losing my sanity.

The amazing grace part of this line is the fact that Jesus Christ said, “I leave you in peace, my peace I give you.” When your colleagues, family members and friends and those you encountered begin to see you radiate with joy in the midst of sorrows, happiness when frustrations abound and calmness in the midst of the most negatively excitable moment, give the credit to your God who never fail in his promises of making sure that his peace abide with us at all times.

He gives me new strength.

The Lord is the strength of my life;of whom shall I fear? Absolutely you have no reason to fear any man or mortal because the reality of our lives on earth is that we are born with nothing and shall depart this world the same way. He that put his trust in the Lord shall never be tired, because his strength shall be renewed for every task he or she is about to embark on.

As you focus on God, you will learn to depend on his divine providence and infinite love for you and this realization is a fundamental source of your strength being renewed. Do your best and leave the rest to God and not the other way round.

He guides me in the right paths, as he has promised.

Have you ever been faced with the challenge of making a choice that might determine whether you will get the job after being unemployed for say about three years? What if one of the choices is to do something that is against your faith as a Christian?

For instance, assuming you are being asked to falsify a document or claim a certification that you do not have in order to apparently has an edge, are you willing to do such a thing?

The right paths of the Lord our God is love! If our actions are dictated by love of God and therefore love of man, we are assured of tolling in the right paths and his promises will abide with us.

In order for us to love God, we must love our brothers and sisters that we can see with our own eyes! These are our neighbors; people we encountered during the course of the day, strangers that seek our assistance, the guy on the street staring at us in expectations of kindness, mercy and compassion, the refugees that are displaced from their homes, the weak and helpless, the downtrodden, the foreigners in your midst, the uneducated that is being taken advantaged of by others, those that are being ridiculed and mocked for their religious belief and alien culture, and what about the woman that is being molested by his partner or the husband that have to deal with the shame of unable to feed his family, and the kids that are exposed to negativity?

The right paths of the Lord are a challenge for all of us that claimed the Lord is our shepherd. Our God is telling us today, that whenever we love our neighbors as ourselves, we are being guided on his right paths and indeed he shall be our true shepherd. The opposite of the Lord is our shepherd is simple ‘we are our shepherd’ implying we do not need God in our lives and rather turn to our intellect, riches and positions to act like mini-gods and expects people to worship us.

Even if I go through the deepest darkness, I will not be afraid, Lord, for you are with me.

The deepest darkness a man could ever imagine is eternal condemnation! Jesus Christ admonished us by saying “Do not be afraid of the one who can kill the body….but rather fear the one that can kill the body and equally the soul.”

A man is made up of the physical (body or flesh) and the spiritual (soul or spirit) and therefore to be a holistic being or individual, we must take into account these two dimensional attributes of our nature.

In the physical ream, we are subject of persecutions, betrayal and denigration, hatred, weakness and denial as a result of either complying with our Christian belief or negating them completely! These challenges manifest in various ways; lost of opportunities, promotions, and inability to make a breakthrough in a chosen career, marital and human relationship difficulties, loss of job or joblessness, homelessness, hunger, nakedness, thirst, injustices, discriminations such as racism, religious bigotry and even geo-political and socio-economic.

When we are faced with these kinds of physical challenges, our responses matters and without doubt, can become a yardstick for others to see God through us or out of pride and foolishness, we can become an emblem of negativity too.

In terms of our spiritual warfare, the difficulties we encountered are intended to draw us closer to God and not away, if only we can put our trust, hope and faith in the ever loving, compassionate and loving God. Whenever we declare for God in our lives, it does not mean everything is going to be okay; we will live in peace, prosperity and enjoyment. On the contrary, our challenges may seems to multiply one hundred folds, and the reason why is not difficult to understand; this world is not our final destination and whenever you chose God over evil, you are working against the worldly status quo of sin and evil which culminates in death.

Consequently, the Lord is my shepherd when I walk through the deepest darkness of life because, in his presence I am given the courage, comfort and support of knowing that the almighty God being faithful to his promises shall never forsake nor abandon those who trust in him.

No matter what you are going through, whether is the harshness in a relationship that is turning sour, unemployment or inability to sustain your family, hatred for your Christian belief, sickness that may be terminal or without adequate cure, questionable habits that is difficult to overcome, suicidal thoughts due to despair and the decision to wanting to give up, today God is telling you not to take any decision without first consulting him!

Ask God for help and you will receive it, even if it is not in the fashion you expected, but God will eventually come through for you and for me too.

Your shepherd’s rod and staff protect me

If you recall the rod in Moses hand and the miracles it performed prior, during and after the children of God were freed from slavery in Egypt, then you can imagine the enormous opportunities that our God is creating for you at this very moment!

Our God shall always protect us by his rod and staff, which are manifested in his words of eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ.

True protection is the presence of peace in the midst of war, joy in the midst of sorrow, hope in despair and faith in doubt and fear.

On the other hand, human protection is essentially and most exclusively dependent on the concert of physical protections as in the use of gun to chase away the “bad guy”, fencing our houses, installing alarms and even programming our cell phones to notify us about the movement of loved ones.

Whenever we place our trust completely on God’s protections, we are rest assured that he shall never fail us and like the Pillar of Cloud by day and the Pillar of Fire by night, no evil fashion against us can prosper.

You prepare a banquet for me….

Ever imagine how it felt like to receive an achievement award from an adversary?

Have you ever being in a situation where after receiving an award, a crucial recommendation or successfully gaining an employment and you come back home and within the quietness of your heart ask yourself, “How does this happened?”

Well, without doubt it happened that way because the almighty God have decided to prepare a banquet for you!

In order for our God to welcome us as an honored guest and to fill our cups with his goodness and love, we must be willing at all times to love him and love our neighbors as ourselves. This is crucial because, it is not all gifts and prosperity that comes from God.

If you kill, betray and use other forms of devilish machinations to become a recipient of an award, employment or prosperity, be rest assured, since these did not come from God, it shall surely depart from you when you most needed them and or you will never have true peace with any of such prosperity.

I know that your goodness and love will be with me all my life; and your house will be my home as long as I live

Amazing grace indeed! King David experienced tremendous difficulties in his life here on earth, but never doubted the goodness of the Lord his God! This is the same David that defeated Goliath with a sling and stone, and from being a shepherd boy became the King and ruler of the people of God.

In spite of all his shortcomings, David was very open to his God; praising the Lord for his infinite mercy, compassion and kindness, for his love and gifts of life, and for his faithfulness, steadfastness and enduring promises.

Like King David, if the Lord is my shepherd, then I ought to have the same kind of faith in him too!

The challenges King David faced may not be as the same as mine, nevertheless, the commonalities are that they are difficult, excruciating and at times so discouraging that we might be tempted to give up!

Whenever we are faced with the complexities of life and the ultimate decision to throw in the towel or walk away from a relationship that seems unable to be reset or a dream and goal in life that no longer seem attainable, King David should be one of our compass in life.

My father always used to tell us growing up that the only thing that kills is death! He will go further by saying, poverty does not kill, illiteracy does not kill and definitely sickness does not kill, only death kills!

This message has stuck to me from a very young age and everyday it emanates new meaning to me, especially the attribute of knowing the limitations of life and death and the quest of mankind desires to conquer the world.

If the Lord is my shepherd, my ultimate desire in life will be to dwell in the house of the Lord or put in another way, I must become the true temple of the Lord my God. Only then will I be able to see the goodness and love of the Lord in my life.

How is the Lord your shepherd today?

May the good Lord bless his words in our hearing today!

Prayer

Dear heavenly Father,

Thank you so much for being the true one and only good shepherd in my life.

Help me to see you in every circumstance that assails me today.

Above all, open the eyes of my heart that I may learn to love you above all things and love my neighbor as myself.

Grant me your grace and fill me with your Holy Spirit, so that my greatest desire is to be counted worthy of your eternal kingdom, and I ask all these through the mighty name of your Only Begotten Son and my Lord and savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Ref: Psalm 23, Deuteronomy 32, Matthew 7, & 10, John 14, 1Samuel 14, Exodus 14, 1 John 4, Psalm 27

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