Psalm 23:1 “The LORD is my shepherd”

[Five short words that hold infinite grace. You, Lord God, the Holy, Pure and Triune Creator, utterly other, totally Just and the Punisher of sin--decisively and wholeheartedly chose to make yourself the Shepherd of rebels.

We are by nature the antithesis of you: finite, sinful, polluted through and through, nurturers of negatives, lovers of lusts. Yet you were willing to stoop down, to reach into this sin-soaked, iniquity-infused, evil-endowed world and make yourself the Shepherd of your saved, yet selfish sheep.

We, in our old nature, deserve only condemnation, suffering, punishment, despair, hopelessness, meaninglessness and death--eternal banishment from your presence and all good.

But, in your magnanimous love and in your gracious goodness, you have offered to all and granted to those who respond, the right to become the children of God. And with that right, you have also granted us a whole host of privileges, at the top of which is, having you be our Shepherd.

A good shepherd is consistently and intimately involved in the lives of his sheep, aware of all that is happening, providing all that is needed for their health, protection and prospering. The sheep don’t choose their shepherd, the shepherd chooses his sheep. So have you, Lord Jesus, chosen us and are now our good Shepherd!