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    The Lord Is My Shepherd: Resting in the Peace and Power of Psalm 23
    The Lord Is My Shepherd: Resting in the Peace and Power of Psalm 23
    The Lord Is My Shepherd: Resting in the Peace and Power of Psalm 23
    Ebook212 pages3 hours

    The Lord Is My Shepherd: Resting in the Peace and Power of Psalm 23

    By Robert J. Morgan

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    About this ebook

    Rob Morgan, bestselling author of Then My Soul Sings, explores the rich meaning behind the world’s best-known and most-loved poem—Psalm 23.

    The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
    He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
    He leads me beside the still waters…

    These are the opening lines to one of the most memorized, inspirational, and comforting passages in the Bible—and one of the greatest poems of all time. In six verses, it provides a microcosm of God’s grace. When anxiety robs us of sleep, our most powerful “tranquilizer” is Psalm 23. It’s a soul-soother. It appears in the middle of a trilogy of psalms dealing with our past, our present, and our future needs.

    In The Lord is My Shepherd, Morgan teaches Psalm 23 verse-by-verse, explaining its extraordinary power to change lives and ease our troubles. He shares its fascinating context and colorful background, as well as his own charming, real-life stories of herding sheep. You’ll find encouragement to enjoy the “green pastures” of life while becoming strengthened by the “dark valleys.” Furthermore, Morgan maintains that some of the Bible’s richest truths are summarized in these six simple verses of Psalm 23. In knowing the Good Shepherd, we have total resources for all our internal, external, and eternal needs.

    Through this clear explanation of the biblical text and great stories that illustrate the love and care of the shepherd, The Lord is My Shepherd will help you rediscover the joy, inspiration, and peace in the green pastures of this beloved psalm.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHoward Books
    Release dateFeb 5, 2013
    ISBN9781451664737
    The Lord Is My Shepherd: Resting in the Peace and Power of Psalm 23
    Author

    Robert J. Morgan

    Robert J. Morgan teaches the Bible each week on his podcast, The Robert J. Morgan Podcast, and through his speaking engagements and his books, including: The Red Sea Rules, The Strength You Need, 100 Bible Verses That Made America, The 50 Final Events in World History, and Then Sings My Soul. He also serves as associate pastor at World Outreach Church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

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    • 5/5
      The author tells stories, quotes Bible verses, and discusses the 23rd Psalm phrase by phrase through the whole chapter. Reading this book is like feeding at a peaceful banquet.
    • 5/5
      Wonderful and insightful. Life changing. A must for all to read.
    • 5/5
      Great book with so much insight into the shepherd heart and life. Inspiring
    • 5/5
      The author uses a lot of personal experiences.This makes an interesting reading.

    Book preview

    The Lord Is My Shepherd - Robert J. Morgan

    Part 1

    part

    The Lord Is My Shepherd

    leaf

    The Twenty-third Psalm is the greatest poem ever penned in any language. It reigns supreme in circles of highest culture and in the humble homes of the lowly. It sounds all the chords of human experience.

    —Dr. Robert C. McQuilkin¹

    leaf

    1

    The Lord Is . . .

    Psalm 23:1

    My father, John I. Morgan, was the owner of Sunset Orchard on the Tennessee and North Carolina border and a high school professor specializing in vocational agriculture, so I grew up around gardens, orchards, and livestock—especially ponies, horses, and burros. But we never raised sheep, so when Katrina and I later purchased our small flock, we hardly knew what we were doing. A helpful friend told us about a classic book on shepherding entitled Raising Sheep the Modern Way. Now published as an updated version under the title Storey’s Guide to Raising Sheep, this book proved a valuable resource not only for raising sheep but also for understanding the Twenty-third Psalm.

    The authors, Paula Simmons and Carol Ekarius, begin the book saying, When you decide to get sheep, it helps if you understand their behavior—in other words, what makes them tick. The more you understand about their behavior, the easier it will be for you to spot problems (for example, is that ewe in the corner sick or is she about to lamb?). Understanding behavior also makes handling animals much easier, on both you and them.

    The authors describe a healthy flock this way: Sheep that are behaving normally are content and alert. They have good appetites and bright eyes. They are gregarious animals, which contributes to their flocking nature. Youngsters, like those of other species, love to play and roughhouse. Groups of lambs will run, romp, and climb for hours when they are healthy and happy. Then they’ll fall asleep so deeply that you may think they’re dead.²

    King David could have written those words three thousand years ago. He understood the contrast between healthy sheep and distressed ones, and he knew the difference was often determined by the quality of shepherding and the nature of the shepherd. Sheep, shepherds, lambs, and flocks are mentioned nearly seven hundred times in the Bible (698 times to be exact, in 563 verses in the New King James Version). The sheep is the first animal mentioned by name in the Bible (Genesis 4:2, Amplified Bible).

    Roy Gustafson, dean of tour guides to Israel who conducted more than 150 trips to Bible lands before his death in 2002, once related a story of a missionary in the mountains of Turkey who gathered a group of shepherds to read the Bible to them. It was a cold night, and as they sat around a fire, the missionary read from the tenth chapter of John about the good shepherd, the thief, the hireling, the sheep, and the door to the sheepfold.

    Oh, sir, is that in the Gospel? asked one of the shepherds in surprise.

    Yes, said the missionary, that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

    Oh, said the shepherd, the glow of the fire lighting his eyes, I didn’t know before that the Bible was a sheep book.³

    Well, it is. The Bible is populated by millions of sheep. On one occasion, the Jews seized 650,000 sheep from the Midianites. The Assyrian king Sennacherib took 800,000 from his enemy’s lands. King Ahab demanded 100,000 rams as tribute from the king of Moab. At the dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem, King Solomon offered 120,000 sheep as sacrifices, and we’re told that 300,000 sacrificial animals were offered annually in Jerusalem.⁴

    Many of the biblical heroes were shepherds, and chief among them was David—musician, herdsman, warrior king, and intrepid giant killer. Some of the most vivid shepherding material comes from his life and writings. Our mind’s eye can readily see this lad in his youth, clad in weathered leather and armed with his staff. His slingshot and shepherd’s pouch hang on his belt; he has lute and lyre at hand.

    Looking at him in the distance, we’re impressed with his expressive face, his reddish hair, his muscular yet lithe frame. There he is, leaning against a boulder, keeping a sharp eye on his flocks, calling his sheep by name, composing songs on the fly, and enjoying life to the fullest. He weathers the elements with ruggedness, maintains his flocks with warmhearted discipline, and eliminates predators with coldblooded efficiency.

    We first meet David in the sixteenth chapter of 1 Samuel, when the prophet Samuel arrived in Bethlehem looking for young men with royal potential. A local farmer named Jesse had a houseful of sons who seemed to fit the bill, and he trotted out his boys for inspection. Samuel was impressed with these young men, but the Lord wasn’t. Seeing the eldest, Eliab, Samuel thought to himself, Surely the Lord’s anointed is before Him. But the Lord said to Samuel, Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature . . . for the Lord does not see as a man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. That’s sage advice for us in today’s age of glitz and glamour, where people have become brands and celebrities are made to appear as though they have as much depth as rain on a sidewalk.

    After the remainder of Jesse’s sons had passed before Samuel and been rejected, the aged prophet asked, Are all the young men here?

    There remains yet the youngest, Jesse said, and there he is, keeping the sheep.

    The boy was summoned. He was ruddy, with bright eyes, and good looking. But there was a depth to him, acquired amid the rocky fields of Judea from the solitude of shepherding. He had a good and God-fearing heart. Samuel’s wrinkled hand reached for his flask of oil. Motioning for the boy to kneel, the old prophet anointed the young shepherd to be the future king of Israel, and the Spirit of the Lord came on David from that day (1 Samuel 16:1–13).

    This was the boy who wrote Psalm 23. This was the man after God’s own heart. The profession of shepherding became a classroom for the crown. It was God’s apprenticeship for kingship. In loving his sheep, David learned to care for his people. While protecting his flock, David was preparing to guard his nation. As he led his animals from pasture to pasture, he acquired the skills of leading men and guiding armies. No experiences were lost, as the fields of Bethlehem became a laboratory for leadership.

    The same, of course, is true for us. Wherever we are today and whatever we’re doing, it’s simply preparation for future service. No experiences should be wasted, and a day is never lost if a lesson is learned. We all have goals and aspirations, but our primary job isn’t to envision great things in the future but to tackle today’s work with enthusiasm. This is true whatever our age. Our best days are always ahead of us, and our present experiences are preparing us for greater work in the future, whether on earth or in heaven. David cared for his flocks as if there were no tomorrow. In the process, God was preparing him for tomorrow’s

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