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He amazes me, my Shepherd.

At the time this Psalm was written there was no one then or now that imagined God as their shepherd who – for His own name’s sake, not because of the goodness of His people – wields the tools of a shepherd in their defense.

Religion, all of it, has it that mankind does not have a God whose mercy endures our wrong doing, who cleanses us at His own expense, who suffers in  place that which we brought on ourselves. The enemies of kindness do not even test His almighty strength.

This Shepherd – God is “mighty to save” those who turn to Him for aid.

Lack becomes the illusion to one whose mind is stayed on Mighty Shepherd: “I shall not lack,” the Psalm reads. When we embrace the conclusion that lack may be permanent, we violate the promise of God. He is our resting place. He will never forsake His own even as “His own” are never able to walk perfectly in His perfect path. We are to “follow after holiness;” we, the sheep of His pasture. (Hebrews 12:14).

He “makes me” to lie down in green pastures. He “Leads me” beside still waters, He – there – refreshes me and restores me bringing me again to His scarred side. The scars on the hands and side of Jesus tell the story – they are scars belonging to me because I was astray; but, taken by Him for me. He is my Shepherd and I love Him and, wonder of wonders, He loves me. I can not want when I am at His side.

So a believer “clings” or “hides” or “leans” on His Rock which is greater than I – and far greater than any foe of his well being even as he views the valley of the shadow of death. “I will fear no evil; for You, LORD, are with me.

You promised, and that is good enough, but you assure and remind me. You even anoint my days with a gladness which comes only from above and can only be known by your own – by those whose trust is in you –who have opened their hearts to you and asked you to come to them.

“My cup overflows;” David wrote. Yes, there is a Fountain – God is that Fountain. Mercy abounds with Him. Kindness is in His every motion – even in judgment He remembers mercy.

He follows me. “Goodness and mercy shall follow me all they days of my life.” Following me He cleanses my back, fills in the gaps of my failed goodness. The Shepherd leads me, follows me, and will soon meet me face to face.

He has destined that we be “Join-heirs with Jesus” – and that forever. The suffering within this life (is real) but not to be compared to the joy which abounds in and with Him. (Romans 8:17-18). He has indeed never left or forsaken me as He promised. (Hebrews 13:5)

“His rod and His staff,” do I see it? “They comfort me.” He comforts me as none other can do, and those who bring me to Him, who refresh my faith in Him, who remind me or introduce to me more of Him –are the Christians He has destined to remain for a season in this world.

“The Lord is my Shepherd.” For the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross at Calvary.

No other message, certainly no religious thought, offers this blessed assurance: Jesus is mine, I am His, and He is the Mighty LORD over all. I will and do “Hide in the hollow of His hand;” but I will and do now, tell of Him wherever I go.

His rod and His staff, yes, they comfort me; but oh how they discomfort those who are enemies to “His will that none should perish, His will that all should find out who He really is and what He is like.  (2 Peter 3:9)

Buddy

“We can dig our way out of this,” says the romantic, and this is a good attitude.   Maybe we can; but maybe we can’t.

To “look on the good side” only , without considering our days and utter need of God’s message of hope for today and tomorrow leaves us in the pathway of dismay or worse––that of indifference and passivity.

We should have great concern, enormous gratefulness and amazement at the perils of history, life today and our own vulnerability. The end of our capacities and opportunities are real.

The luxury offered us in the Gospel of God, is that in everything we can, give thanks; for this is His will concerning us. (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

Joseph was the favorite son of his father, Jacob. This favor aroused jealousy among his brothers enough that they deceived Jacob into believing that Joseph had been killed.  Instead, Joseph’s brothers sold him to a caravan of Egyptians.  There in Egypt Joseph faced a host of extreme difficulties and further betrayal.

Before Joseph saw God’s purpose in his life, he developed an attitude of “You meant if for evil; but God meant it for good.” He later shared this to his brothers. (Genesis 50:20)

God is not to be ignored. Fear of the Lord is, after all is the beginning of wisdom. But He is such that for those who know Him, He is loved and revered. (Proverbs 9:10)

“This day,” and every moment too, “is a day the LORD has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24).

Even if the season of our plight is as Joseph, mired in a prison of someone else’s making, God will deliver us and He will turn darkness to light.  Sometimes we turn to Him best in circumstances which are the worst.   He then becomes to us the Potter who remakes lives.

Joseph is a legacy to us of how to face anything in our path. He was moral. He was faithful. He walked in the assurance of God’s goodness. He hadn’t witnessed the life of Christ on earth. He had not seen the resurrection as a fact of history. He had not heard the completed story. We don’t know everything either.

The devastation our fellow Americans face in the North East, the brutal deaths of our fellow Americans in Libya.  The sorrow that millions of children not lucky enough to have been born in America and whose poverty is real and not their own fault, every death, every crippling disease––do these catch our eye? They should.  We are fool-hearty if we just “Thank our lucky stars.”

Our hearts should ache. Christ’s does. He gave Himself a sacrifice as the only cure. Those without Him face an eternity of sorrow: that is His message; not mine.

We see fiction films showing the walking dead. Do we see the stark reality of it? The devil means if for evil. The LORD means it to awaken us; to stir us from complacency.

Jesus came to take our sin away, to heal broken hearts and fill them with hope, to bless and not to curse.

Be awed friends by all that is happening. In that awe, be Christ’s ambassador. Don’t think you can change much in people.  He does the changing.  Share Him with them, don’t keep Him to yourself.  “The blind see, the maimed are healed, prisoners are freed, and the poor have the Gospel preached to them.”  Jesus said this.  (Matthew 11:5)

Were it not for the Gospel preached, barbarism world not have been overcome in history. Without the Gospel preached, it is returning.

Suffering is inevitably the result of sin. Salvation from a suffering eternity changes a person. They see the suffering as what brought them to the Lord.

Oh, what joy believers experience. The “Outstretched arms” of God in Christ and the “Mighty hand” stretched forth for all mankind on Calvary was God’s answer to sin-caused suffering.

He came to take away our sin, to take away the sting of death, to implant certain hope and to grant complete assurance, to satisfy our longings.

So, friends, look around, someone is crying.  They don’t know they weep because they are not at home with Christ. Please tell them.

Buddy