Psalm 23 - God our Provider by C.G Teh 24/9/06

In Psalm 23, David, the psalmist started off with this well–known verse “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want”, because the Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing, David said. Why is David so confident and so passionate when he penned this psalm? This morning let’s journey down this beautiful psalm one more time and recall what the Lord had provided us in the past and will continue to faithfully provide us in the future.

In the fast and busy lifestyle of today we struggle to find time to rest and to refresh our spiritual being. Our souls need to “lie down” and enjoy the refreshment from the “still waters”. Jesus says in Matt. 11:28 “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” This is the provision of REST and REFRESHMENT (R&R) which the Lord wants us to take regularly. When our souls are too noisy, we cannot find rest in our souls and when that happens we fall into sin.
“He restores my soul.” The Lord in his grace, mercy and love provides us an avenue for RESTORATION. We need to come to the Lord with a broken and a contrite heart and seek restoration to our soul. True repentance comes from the heart not the lip. The Lord will lead us to the paths of righteousness; He wants to restore us so that He can use us to carry out His redeeming work for His glory.

Before the Lord can use us to carry out His redeeming work He will put us to the test and will send us down the valley. When we are down the valley, the Lord will provide us PROTECTION and COMFORT as our circumstances can be dangerous and uncomfortable. Dangerous because if we focus on ourselves we will be defeated, if we focus on our circumstances we will be depressed but if we focus on our Sovereign Lord we will be delivered. Jesus says in Hebrew 13:5 “I will never leave you nor forsake you”. There are some things about God we will never learn until we go down the valley. Sometimes there are difficult questions about life that are left unanswered and can only be answered when we meet God. Why does God limit us and not tell us the answers to some difficult questions, like why did God takes home the dad of a three years old child when the child needed the dad most? I believe God wants us to learn about eternity and dependency.

God created us to last forever and not for only 70 or 80 years and have“put eternity in our hearts” (Eccl. 3:11) so that we will depend on and trust Him that He knows best. When we meet God one day we will understand the pain and sufferings He allowed us to go through in our valley days. Roman 8:28 says” And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Jesus says in 2 Cor.12:9”My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness”, hold on to these two verses if you are in the valley today. We are to “walk through” the valley, we are not meant to stay in the valley, when we stay put in the valley, God cannot be glorified. God wants us to live a victorious life.

God so loved the world that he sent his Son to the cross so that we can be reconciled to him, and we will “dwell in the house of the Lord. Forever”. The Lord has given us everything, even his only Son. Is there anything else you want?