The Lord is my Shepherd

The following excerpt is from a devotional book that I read every morning entitled "God is Enough." The devotionals in this book are excerpts from some of Hannah Whitehall Smith's books and journals. This particular excerpt is from her book, The God of All Comfort. When I read these words for the first time about a year ago, I was going through a really rough time. These words were indeed a comfort and reassured me of God's love and care for me! It just happened to be yesterday's and today's devotionals so I just had to share them. Hope they are a blessing to you!

Hundreds of times you have said, "The LORD is my shepherd" (Ps. 23:1), but have you ever really believed it to be an actual fact? Have you felt safe and happy and free from care, as a sheep must feel when under the care of a good shepherd? Or have you felt like a forlorn sheep without a shepherd or with an unfaithful, inefficient shepherd, who does not supply your needs and leaves you in times of danger and darkness?

Answer these questions honestly in your own soul. Have you had a comfortable religious life or an uncomfortable one? If the latter has been your condition, how can you reconcile it with the statement that the Lord is your Shepherd and therefore you shall not want? You say that He is your Shepherd, yet you complain that you do want. Who has made the mistake - you or the Lord?

But here, perhaps, you will meet me with the words, "Oh, no, I do not blame the Lord, but I am so weak and foolish and ignorant that I am not worthy of His care." Don't you know that sheep are always weak, helpless, and silly, and that the very reason they must have a shepherd is because they are so unable to take care of themselves? Their welfare and their safety do not in the least depend on their own strength or wisdom but wholly and entirely on the care of their shepherd. If you are a sheep, your welfare also must depend altogether on your Shepherd and not at all on yourself.

Let us imagine two flocks of sheep meeting at the end of the winter and comparing their experiences. One flock is fat and strong and in good condition, and the other flock is poor and lean and diseased. Will the healthy flock boast of themselves, saying, "See what splendid care we have taken of ourselves, what good, strong, wise sheep we must be"? Surely not. Their boasting would all be about their shepherd. "See what a good shepherd we have had, " they would say, "and see how he has cared for us. Through all the storms of the winter he has protected us. He has defended us from every wild beast and has always provided us with the best of food."

On the other hand, would the poor, wretched, diseased sheep blame themselves and say, "Alas! what wicked sheep we must be , to be in such a poor condition"? No they too would speak only of their shepherd. "Our shepherd was very different from yours. He fed himself, but he did not feed us. He did not strengthen us when we were weak, heal us when we were sick, bind us up when we were broken, or look for us when we were lost. In times of danger or of storm, he forsook us and fled."

We all understand the responsibility of a shepherd toward his sheep, but the moment we transfer the figure to our religion, we shift all the responsibility from the Shepherd and lay it on the sheep. We demand of the poor human sheep the care and power to provide what can only be provided by the divine Shepherd. Of course, the poor sheep fail, and their religious lives become miserable.