The Lord is still the Lord[ Psalm 23 ]

Brian Houston sings a song , /The Lord is still the Lord/,one of the verses goes,/The price of propertys going down, The Lord is still the Lord, and every job is leaving town, The Lord is still the Lord. When you dont know what to do , The Lord is still the Lord. The Lord will still provide for You. The Lord is still the Lord/.Fear is part of the human condition as regards life, and death, it does not take much to make us afraid, to feel insecure. Consider v4 of Ps 23,/Yea ,though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me/, are you in a valley experience?, a dark valley, mybe even facing death, whatever valley you may be in , fear no evil, for there is one with you, His name is Jesus, he is not a spectator, He is with you, to bring you through, He will not desert you. He will comfort you, protect you, provide, and if you experience suffering He will give grace, so fear no evil.[ Dear Lord often we are afraid, afraid of so many things, help us today, to fear no evil, for You are with us, Amen ]

His name sake.[Revelation5 ]

For His name sake[Ps 23v3]We are not the center of the universe, Our Lord is, and rightly so, and it is important that we see this, in relation to our lives, and service. All that He is doing in our lives is for His honour and glory, not ours, to God be the Glory, in everything we do ,say and think.For two long humanity has sought to rob God of His glory, one has pointed out that the middle letter in the word sin,is I,so much of what we do is self glorification. Our good Shepherd taught that we should not promote self[Matthew 6], in 1 Corinthians 10v31, we are instructed to do all things to the glory of God.Keith Green wrote,/And when Im doing well ,help me never to seek a crown, for my reward is giving glory to You/. God has saved us ,and equipped us so that we might bring glory to His name, both now and in eternity[ Dear Lord help me to not be a thief and to rob You of Your glory. Amen]

Paths of righteousness. [Leviticus 20v 7 ]

He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name,s sake.[Ps 23v3]. Often the Lord will lead in difficult paths,He will challenge us in many areas of life, to do and go, but one thing He will not do, He will not lead us to sin. We all can rationalize what we do, even sinful behaviour,we can understand if a person is hungry, and they steal, but it is still wrong. There is always reasons why we do certain things, yes even wrong things, a marriage may be difficult,marriage can be great, but it also can be heartbreaking, so we may be tempted to justify unfaithfulness, we may even think God will approve, He wont. Our good Shepherd only leads us in paths of righteousness, sin is to be resisted, and of course He will help us[ 1 Corinthians 10v12-13] [ Dear Shepherd of our souls ,help us to follow You in paths of righteousness, Amen ]

He will lead.[ Psalm 25v9 ]

He leadeth me[Ps 23 v1], this is a wonderful promise, the Lord is leading His children, Barnes writes,/This God will always do if we follow the directions of His word, the teaching of His Spirit, and the guidance of His providence/. As we consider the life of David and others in the scripture, we see that God led them, so often I have cried unto God to lead me, because I am so conscious that I need His leading,so conscious that I can, if left to myself make the wrong choices. The scriptures tell us that we are to acknowledge God in all our ways and He will direct our paths [ Proverbs 3v5], so today, let us do ,what the scripture tells us, and let Him lead us in the right way, let us have confidence to believe that our good Shepherd will lead us.[ Dear Lord we thank You for Your promise that You will lead us,help us to follow in Your footsteps. Amen]

Weary with life.[ [Isaiah 40v29-31]

The other way we can look at the words, He restoreth my soulv3[Ps 23], is not so much the backslider, but as Barnes puts it,/To the spirit when exhausted ,weary, or sad/. For many life is full of pressure , I think of those in Christian minister,a friend of mine mentioned ,how he noticed the strain on a fellow ministers face. The Christian ministery brings with it particular pressures that can be overwhelming, pray for those in Christian ministery. The pressure of life can cause us all to be weary and exhausted, so consider the words of the Psalm, the good shepherd can restore us once again in our spirits.Let us all spend a little time in our Saviours presence,He will meet our need, and restore us once again. [ Dear Lord help us today as we face the pressures of life ,restore our strength, fill our hearts with Your joy and peace. Amen ]

He stills loves.[Jeremiah 31v3 ]

Verse 3 of Psalm 23, reads ,He restoreth my soul,there are two ways of looking at this, one the backslider, the person who has wandered away from their Lord.There are different reasons why people backslide, but whatever the reason, the important thing is to realize the fact that we are backsliden. We may have been hurt by a Christian ,or hurt by our involvment in a local church, or the worries of life,by difficulties in our marriage,or we may have yielded to some temptation,we may have turned our eyes from looking on Christ. Whatever the reason we are away from God, we need to be restored, for that to happen we need to bring everything to our Lord, be honest ,be willing, repent. William Cowper wrote,/What peaceful hours I once enjoyed. how sweet their memory still, But they have left an aching void the world can never fill/. Only the good shepherd can meet the deepest need of our hearts,He loves us even when we are away from Him, and longs to retore us.[ Dear Lord have mercy upon us when we stray from You, and in your great love restore us to Yourself Amen ]

Rest for saints [ Mark 6 v30-31]

Verse 2 of Psalm 23 .reminds us of how our good Shepherd knows that we need to rest,so many people are driven, busy, busy ,busy. Now of course it is good to be busy, but we do need to rest,both physically and spiritually,one great preacher said,that he did not tire of the work of God , but he did become tired in it.We read in Genesis 2 how God rested[not that He was tired] but it emphasizes the fact that we need to rest,God is not a hard taskmaster, He does not drive His sheep into the ground.In Mark 6v31, we have our Saviour speaking to His disciples, they are so busy and didnt have time to eat,[ I hear that often in my work],so Jesus says,/ Lets go off to a quite place and rest a while/. So today rest, dont feel guilty, relax, read a book, sit and listen to nice music, take a walk, and in it all, enjoy the the presence of your good Shepherd.[ Dear Lord we thank You that You are not a hard taskmaster,You do not drive us, but lead us gently beside the still waters. Amen ]