Psalm 23:1 says, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” Other translations will say I lack nothing, or I have everything I need. For some reason it’s really easy to agree with the first part, the Lord being our shepherd. We love the idea that someone is looking out for us. We can graze, and be dumb, and walk straight towards danger because we trust that the good Shepherd will be on the lookout for us. The Shepherd will pull us back from oblivion.
However, we have a much harder time embracing the second half. It is easy to SAY I lack nothing. It’s a lot harder to BELIEVE that you actually lack nothing. I hope there is an honest part of each person that strives to be content, but we all know that there are trillions of dollars being poured out to make you feel discontent.
Every new car you pass, every aisle you walk down in the grocery store, half of the images you scroll past on social media exist to make you want to buy more stuff. How can you be happy if you don’t have the latest and greatest? How much better would your life be if you had our thing instead of our competitor’s thing?
In the midst of all these things that are designed to distract us we need to point our dumb sheep heads back towards the Shepherd. The Lord is our Shepherd when we can focus on him, we can see that all we truly need is found in him. If we can ground our identity in who we are in Christ, a lot of the discontentment will fall away. Who cares about what kind of stuff you have when you are loved by God? How can life get better when you know God is with you?
You will still need to survive with your feet on the Earth, but when you trust that God is with you each step can feel a little lighter. The burden on your back can be a little easier to carry.
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.