Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Important people like executives, doctors, and lawyers, have "receptionists" outside their office doors to keep you out, to administer non-reception. But there are two passages in the Bible that represent God as having His office door open to you all the time with a Receptionist or Secretary saying "Come in!" One is Christ's model prayer that instructs us to call God "our Father." You are invited; you are adopted; you are "family." Sinful and unworthy though you be? Yes! When the Father welcomed the wet, dripping Jesus as He came out of the water from John's baptism, He said of you, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3:17; Eph. 1:6). The other passage is Psalm 23.
There is no fine print that warns the reader, "Beware! This psalm is only for good people who do everything right; only they can say that 'the Lord is [their] Shepherd.'" The last page of the Bible says "'Come!' And let him who hears say, 'Come!' And let him who thirsts come" (Rev. 22:17).
There is nothing you have to doin order to make Christ become your Shepherd; He already is. You'll be a thousand times happier when you believe what is already truth.
You "shall not want" because "my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Phil. 4:19). Rightly translated Psalm 23:1 says, "Your Shepherd is your Social Security."
The "still waters" that refresh your soul even now come from the water of life (Rev. 22:17).
David probably wrote "He restores my soul" in his teenage years not knowing that he would some day pray with agonizing tears, "Restore to me the joy of Your salvation" (Psalm 51:12) after his quadruple sin of adultery with Bathsheba and cover-up murder. It's present tense for you; the "restoration" goes on, otherwise you'd be dead.
The Shepherd "leads [you] in the paths of righteousness" because "your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, 'This is the way, walk ye in it,' whenever you turn to the right hand, or whenever you turn to the left" (Isa. 30:21). Unerring guidance!
By God's grace, there will be a tomorrow for another glimpse of Christ as "my Shepherd."
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: August 20, 2000.
Copyright © 2020 by "Dial Daily Bread."
