I love the banners we display in church.
They are not only beautiful;
they are also excellent reminders.
Recently, one in particular
grabbed my attention.
It is the one that hangs directly behind the pulpit.
It simply states, “The Lord is my Shepherd.”
This is, of course, is the opening of Psalm 23.
The 23rd Psalm is a chapter from scripture we
memorize at a very young age.
We turn to it repeatedly throughout our lives.
We find it a tremendous source of both peace and comfort.
Such were my thoughts minutes before the start of a worship
service.
As time went by, I started turning these words over in my
mind.
The next thing I knew the word “only” came to mind.
Before I knew it, I found myself inserting that word into
this statement in various places.
As I did so, each result had an impact on me.
Consider each one.
ONLY the Lord is my Shepherd.
The ONLY Lord is my Shepherd.
The Lord ONLY is my Shepherd.
The Lord is my ONLY Shepherd.
Now it is true that the Bible warns us of the dangers of
altering scripture.
Proverbs 30:6 (KJV) - Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove
thee, and thou be found a liar.
There are others as well but I feel I am on safe ground here.
Although the Psalmist did not use the word “only”, the word
is implied.
I merely inferred it.
The proof lies in the remainder of the verse.
Psalm 23:1 (KJV) - The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
When we make the Lord our ONLY Shepherd, we have absolutely everything
we need.
C. S. Lewis in The
Weight of Glory put it this way: “He who has God and everything else has no
more than he who has God only.”
Lord, we thank You for being our only shepherd.
We thank You for being all we need.
We thank You for making us lie down when we make ourselves
too busy.
We thank You for restoring our souls.
We thank You for conquering every fear we have.
We thank You for the salvation you planned for us from the
beginning.
Amen!
Blessings,
Jim Pokorny
The Other Brother Jim
Look for me at http://faithfulfeetteam.blogspot.com/ on
Friday, October 21, 2016.
I will be back here on Friday, October 28, 2016
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