#DailyDevotion Jesus Is The LORD My Shepherd

Psalm 23 The LORD is my Shepherd —

In the previous psalm we saw the fulfillment of Zech. 13, “⁷Awake, sword, against My Shepherd, against the Man Who is close to Me!…Strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.” But now in this psalm we are directed towards Ezekiel 34 where the LORD says, “¹¹“The Lord GOD says this: Look! I, even I, will search for My sheep and look after them. ¹²As a shepherd looks after his flock when they are scattered around him, so I will take care of My flock and rescue them from every place where they may be scattered on cloudy and gloomy days.” Again in the same chapter it is written, “²³“ ‘I will raise up one Shepherd over them, My Servant David, Who will feed them. He will feed them and be their Shepherd. ²⁴I the LORD will be their God, and My Servant David will be the Ruler among them. I the LORD say so.” Jesus tells us in John 10, “¹¹I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep.” Jesus is the Shepherd who is struck down. Jesus is the LORD who is the Shepherd of His people.

I have everything I need. ²He makes me lie down in fresh green pastures and leads me to water where I can rest.

Jesus is the LORD’s servant David. He has us lie down in the green pastures of His Word and gives us water, i.e. the Holy Spirit. He feeds us with His Gospel, the good news of the free gift, forgiveness of sins. He feeds us with His promises of eternal life, the resurrection from the dead and the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus feeds us with His body and blood so we may have the certainty of these seals that we are saved. They assure us we are participants in His New Covenant where He promises us to forgive us our sins and remember them no more. They give us the certainty that He is our God and we are His people. Jesus baptizes us with water and the Word, there joining us to His life, death and resurrection, giving us the Holy Spirit who teaches our hearts everything we need to know–Jesus is the LORD! Jesus gives Himself to us. What else do we need?

³He restores my life. He leads me on paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.

Isaiah 40 writes, “¹¹Like a shepherd He takes care of His flock; He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them at His bosom. He gently helps the mother sheep.” So Jesus our Good Shepherd takes care of us. He restores our lives through the word and the sacraments. He gently helps the mother sheep, i.e. the Church, to provide and take care of the sheep. He takes us from eternal death and gives us eternal life instead. Jesus, through the Word, leads us on the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. The path of righteousness is faith in Him first and foremost. Then by and through the gift of the Holy Spirit He lives His life through us. He makes manifest in our lives the Sermon on the Mount so we become those who are blessed. He changes our hearts, minds, affections and the like so the rest of the sermon becomes manifest in our thinking, speaking, and acting. So we become merciful to those who need mercy. We forgive those who sin against us. We pray for and love our enemies and do good to them. This is what God our Father has done for us in Christ Jesus. As we have fellowship with Him through the Spirit, His life and His will become one with ours.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for sending Jesus, You Son, to be the Shepherd of our souls. We pray that as we put our faith in Him, we may be comforted by Him and be led on the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.