The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need.

Meditations on the Psalms

August 4, 2022

Your Face Is Shining With The Brightness Of His Face

The Lord is my shepherd;

I have all that I need.

Psalm 23:1

Psalm 23 has been a bedrock for my faith for many, many years. Recently, as I have been reflecting on the magnificent prose of this psalm, what struck me is that David was not speaking theoretically about God. David was affirming his experience of God.

David personally knew God as his shepherd as he had experienced God providing for him; leading him to green pastures and still waters; restoring his soul and leading him to righteous living. In times of great peril, David experienced God with him, protecting and comforting him. Even as David’s enemies scoffed at him, David experienced God providing abundantly for him, and giving him the assurance that he would dwell with the Lord forever.

The concept of Jesus as the Good Shepherd resonates within my soul, and I am drawn to passages such as John 10 where Jesus talks of himself as the Shepherd and his followers as his sheep. God has used the parable of the lost sheep in Luke 15 to often remind me he will never, ever, give up on me. You can find images of The Shepherd, and the scenes of Psalm 23, throughout the New Testament. As an example, in Mark’s description of the feeding the five thousand (Mark 6:30-43) “Jesus told the disciples to have the people sit down in groups on the green grass.” For me, this invokes images of the “green pastures” in Psalm 23:2.

The most pervasive theme of the Bible is God’s longing for His people to know, and to experience, how much He loves us. I believe when God’s love truly penetrates our soul, when we experience His love, a miracle takes place. The Apostle Paul describes the miracle this way, “Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him” (2 Corinthians 3: 18, The Message).

How can we move toward such intimacy with God? Psalm 23 is a very good place to start because what was true for David can be true for us; we too can experience God just as David did.  Each day we can focus on one verse and note how we have experienced God as our Shepherd, leading us, providing for us, comforting us, and overflowing our cup. If a personal experience doesn’t come readily to mind, ask the Lord to manifest His presence in your life so that you may experience His goodness and grace.

My Takeaway: Let’s spend a week with our Shepherd; meditating on one verse each day. I bet we won’t be surprised if along the way someone observes our face is shining with the brightness of His face.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2022 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.