You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
The LORD [Yahovah] is my shepherd; [ra`ah] I shall not want. [chacer] KJV-Interlinear
A Psalm of
David.
1 The Lord
is my shepherd, I shall not want. NASB
When we were studying Rev. 6, we saw the despair of those who have been otherwise negative toward God. The world is crashing down around them and they are filed with frustration, rage, anxiety, hopelessness and helplessness, as well as many other emotions.
Here we see the flip side of the coin, and look at believers who are advancing toward maturity.
The 23rd psalm. A psalm of a King. Note that David was a very brave warrior. He fought well in battle, he led well in his government. For 40 years He was king and with the exceptions of just a few years out of those 40, the vast majority of those years were as a stable and mature believer.
But prior to all of his public history, David was a humble shepherd. No education of any formality. He learned at home or in the field. No fancy universities, no fancy degrees, only Bible doctrine and God did all the rest.
The Lord, 'Jehovah', is a personal name for the Son of God, the second person of the trinity, who is Jesus Christ. He is the only member of the trinity who has a personal name. The Father and the Holy Spirit do not have such identifying names. None of the members of the trinity have any superiority over the other two. They are all co-equal, co-infinite, and co-eternal. They all have the same ten basic essence characteristics of omniscience, omnipotence, immutability and so forth. But the only person through whom we have access to God, is Jesus Christ.
He is our shepherd. God watches over us and provides for us, for our every need.
'I shall not want'. Want, 'chacer', make less, fail, lack. This is better translated , 'I shall not lack for anything.' 'I shall not have less, but more'.
God is our shepherd. That is He is the shepherd of those who are positive toward Him. God provides for us all in general.
He has a policy of common grace wherein He provides for the entire human race - believer and unbeliever.
He has a policy of grace wherein He provides more for believers - who are both positive and negative toward Him.
And He has a policy of greater grace (the book of James) wherein He provides above and beyond for mature believers.
The shepherd leads his flock to where the food and water is. He leads his flock to the better resting areas. He protects his flock from predators. He rescues members of his flock when they stray away from the flock or get disoriented and lost. The shepherd watches over all the flock and sees the things that the flock does not see. He anticipates for the future needs of the flock. The needs that the flock does not even know it will require. The shepherd guides and collects and directs the movements of the flock. He keeps the flock in place when it is time to stay. He moves the flock forward when it is time to move.
The shepherd keeps track of the timing of the flocks needed movements and the seasons, in which the flock finds itself. The shepherd controls the flock.
In contrast those peoples of Rev. 6 have no leadership. They have no life. They have no guidance, no map to follow. Their problems are so many, they don't even know where to begin to find a solution.
A flock of God, grazes peacefully in the meadows. Those people in Rev. 6, have no meadow. They have only misery and death all around them.
Gods flock lacks for nothing. Everything is provided. And that is really what life should be all about. The life of the very wealthy is a prime example of how things should really be. They have everything provided, if we use them as an example, a teaching example. Their life is of rest and relaxation. Of no schedules, no deadlines, of no barriers.
In contrast the poor folks of the world, have all the deadlines, they lack in almost everything they have. They are short of money, short of freedom, short of the flexibility of life. So in these two extremes we can learn and picture what God has available for us depending on whether we are positive toward Him and advance toward spiritual maturity, or whether we are negative toward Him and are in effect standing still in our spiritual life.
Those negative folks of Rev. 6, regardless of their station in life, have misery and inflexibility in their lives. But in contrast, mature believers have greater flexibility and blessings in life. Ones spiritual blessings depend only on ones spiritual growth and advancement. It never depends on ones financial status, never on ones social status, never on ones political status, and so forth.
With God watching, and He does in particular watch over those who are positive toward Him and advancing in their spiritual lives, then there is blessing, security, and protection. This does not mean that life cannot capture you up in some sort of bad situation. Many will suffer or even die for Christ's sake. But they will not die in vain. Nor will they lose out in life because of their untimely bad situation or even death.
This life is merely a staging area for giving one the opportunity for first believing in Christ, and second for being positive toward His Word and furthering their learning regarding Christ. Apart from these two things, all else is nothingness as Solomon states.
Bible study does not take away anything from our personal lives. We lack for nothing. God watches out for us and provides for us, forgetting nothing.
Apart from God, what other resource does anyone have for their survival in life? Nothing.
So accepting God in your life recognizes that He is the only source for everything in life.
Ignoring God rejects the only resource for life and accepts the jungle or the world and its arbitrary rules, which never keep your best interest at heart.
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