Let Him Shepherd You
“The Lord is my shepherd.” Many of us know this familiar phrase from Psalm 23 so well that we barely stop to think about what it really means. I have had the entire Psalm memorized since I was a kid, but the other day I felt the Lord telling me to pause and ponder this analogy before plunging ahead to the next verse.
If the Lord is like my shepherd, then I am his sheep. What is the role of the shepherd versus the role of the sheep? The shepherd is responsible to care for and provide for his sheep. He protects the sheep from predators and other dangers. He ensures that the sheep has access to all it needs, including food, water and shelter. He provides guidance for the sheep. He pursues the sheep when it wanders off. The shepherd plays an active role in the caretaking of his sheep. He’s keenly aware of what his sheep are doing. He’s not sitting inside watching tv while the sheep are out getting in to mischief or drowning in the river or being torn apart by bears. He cares about each one of his sheep and takes his role as shepherd seriously.
The role of the sheep is much simpler than that of the shepherd. The role of the sheep is to stay close to the shepherd. This means the sheep follows when the shepherd is on the move and stops when he stops. It is also the role of the sheep to trust the shepherd for all of its needs. If the shepherd stops to rest, and the sheep were to plunge on ahead, thinking “this guy doesn’t realize that if we don’t keep moving, we’re never going to get to where we need to be,” the sheep is likely to run in to some disaster. The sheep is ALWAYS going to be better off by staying near the shepherd.
Our role as human beings is to stay near to our God, to be aware of what he is saying and doing, and to trust that he loves us, cares for us, and will continue to care for us even when it seems like we’re really going through the wilderness. It’s not our role to take care of God by telling him what he’s obviously missing, or to set out on our own to take care of ourselves and to try to achieve our dreams alone, creating distance between us and God.
Many of us may wander from God not because we intentionally want to be distant from God, but because we get too caught up in our desire to be good, responsible humans doing what we think we need to do. We forget to listen. We lose awareness of what he’s doing or saying. And before we know it, we’ve lost sight of our shepherd and find ourselves caught up in a web of stress and anxiety, unsure how to get what we need or fulfill our purpose. If this is your tendency, take time today to bring your awareness back to God. What is he saying to you? What is he doing? Is he prompting you to move, or is he asking you to pull back, rest, and reset your focus. He will lead you beside still waters. He will make you lie down in green pastures. He will restore your soul.