What emotions does the word, “home,” elicit in you? Warmth? Comfort? Strife? Brokenness?

I’ve read and memorized Psalm 23 many many times, but I’ve never seen it as a picture of God taking us home…

Ps. 23:1-3, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul.”

Can you see it, smell it, and feel it? It’s an idyllic scene where there is peace and comfort all because God as our Shepherd meets all our hearts’ desires.

But the scene changes…

Ps. 23:4, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.”

Now some dark moments in our lives. God doesn’t guide us FROM our troubles, but God guides us THROUGH them! We find comfort in the fact that He is with us! How often have we prayed, “God, please deliver me from this situation,” rather than, “God, please be with me in this situation.”

Then, something we all desire…

Ps. 23:5, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows… and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

Do you realize where the sheep is now? He is at the Lord’s house! He started out on the field, then when through a death valley, and now he’s in the Lord’s house.

Doesn’t this describe the entirety of a Christian’s life? We are out on the field now, vulnerable from enemies and elements, then we go through a dark valley, called death, but we finally end up in God’s house as His bride!!!

But the important thing to remember is that God was with us the whole time. And the whole time, in the midst of our worries, sin, rebellion, failings, unfaithfulness, he has been there the whole time trying to get us to see the Good Shepherd and Husband behind them all!

If we can truly identify with the first verse, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want,” then, we’ve arrived as Christians.

But aren’t ALL our problems stemming from the fact that the Lord is NOT our shepherd and thus we have many wants beside Him?

PH