Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Have you ever thought of the 23rd Psalm as a New Covenant psalm? David is not asking for anything, he is not worried about anything; he is simply declaring how wonderful the Lord is to him. There is no bargaining with the Lord, no attempt to make an agreement with Him.
The Lord is his Shepherd; he will never "want" for anything. As a loving Shepherd, the Lord will make him to lie down in green pastures, will lead him beside "still waters," will heal him, "restore" his soul, and will lead him in "paths of righteousness." In other words, He will lead him in such a way that when life is over and David looks back, he will see that everything that has happened to him was the best, even though at the time he couldn't see how.
That's like the fantastic promises the Lord made to Abraham in Genesis 12:2, 3. (In Galatians 3:15-17 and in Romans 4:13 Paul says that those promises were New Covenant.) Abraham did not bargain with the Lord, strike an agreement with Him, or make a contract. The Lord simply promised Abraham the sky, out and out; no strings attached (read it--it's astonishing). Abraham's "part" was his melted-heart response, "I believe." The lesson is clear; it's what the Bible has been trying to tell us all along: righteousness comes through believing God's promises!
David believed that "even though he walks through the valley of the shadow of death, the Lord is with Him." Even in his last extremity, the Lord "anoints his head with oil and his cup runs over," and therefore "goodness and mercy will follow him all the days of his life." Good News for you today!
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: March 22, 2004.
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