The Lord is my shepherd
I shall not want
He makes me lie down in green pastures
He leads me beside the quiet waters.
So many references in God’s Word are about sheep and the shepherd.
Isaiah 53:6 KJV “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
I am so thankful for “The Shepherd”. Jesus is the good shepherd. John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”
Jesus is my shepherd. “He leads me beside still waters.”
Sheep like all living things need water to thrive. Thirst lets our bodies know we need liquid nourishment. “Water determines the vitality, strength, and vigor of the sheep and is essential to its health and general well being.” (A Shepherd Look At Psalm 23 by Philip Keller)
Sheep are not very smart animals. Much like us when they get thirsty they get restless and begin to look for any source of water available. If the shepherd is not doing his job finding a clean, fresh and still water, the sheep drink will drink from any polluted water. Drinking from sources that are filled with dangerous parasites.
When we fail to drink from the fountain of living water regularly, we also get restless and are tempted to drink from polluted streams. I love the old hymns because they were written out of experiences. I love meditating on the words because they bring depth to worship. The hymn Count Your Blessings has a verse in it that speaks of our wandering nature.
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let that grace now like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.
Just as God has placed within us a natural desire for water, He also created us with a spiritual thirst. It is a thirst for the “living water”, Jesus.
In contrast to this scripture and many times in our lives when we become thirsty and restless we look in the wrong places to satisfy that desire. Jeremiah 2:13 says it this way, “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” (NIV translation)
Jesus tells us that He is the living water. John 4:14 NLT “But those who drink of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water bubbling up to eternal life.” Jesus invites us to come to the waters. Drink in God’s Word! Rest in His care!
Refreshing comes from the one who created you and me because He knows what we need. St.Augustine put it this way. “Thou hast made us for thyself, O LORD, and our heart is restless until it finds rest in thee.”
Rest and Refresh! You know we need it!!!!
Love,
Freda Reynolds
https://youtu.be/63WPP8qdutE
David Phelps Family Band
And Jesus said, Come to the water!
