Psalm 23: I Shall Not Want

“I shall not want…” (Psalm 23)

As David pondered his care of his father’s sheep and how he, David, cared for them so that they had no wants, it must have been a wonderful moment when it dawned on him that Yahweh was his shepherd and that he would not want.

Jesus tells us not to fear and that we are of more value than sparrows whom God’s eye is on – not even one falls to the ground without God knowing and seeing. While I can’t directly relate to David and his sheep I can relate to the sparrows for Vickie and I have two hopper feeders with seed, one tube feeder with peanuts, one tube feeder with finch mix, one tube feeder with seed, one suet feeder, and a bird bath that is heated in winter. We also have a number of bird houses. We don’t put insect killer on the ground because we don’t want to harm the birds. I have thought more than once, “If we care for the birds in this way, how much more must our Father care for us.”

It strikes me that the words, “I shall not want” speak not only to the present, but also to the future. It isn’t just that I will not want today but that I will not want tomorrow – this is a trust unnatural in our world, a world that plays upon fear, indeed an economy that creates fear and then uses that fear to manipulate us into consuming goods and services. Motivation by fear is the primary motivation used by government, political parties, businesses, and…unfortunately, often within churches and families. We are puppets on the strings of fear.

And yet…if we will but trust our heavenly Father we can learn to say with David, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”