Sunday, February 22, 1998
I SHALL NOT WANT
Psalm 23:1
"The Lord is my
Shepherd, I shall not want."
For centuries Psalm
23 has brought comfort and hope
to millions of people. It so beautifully depicts our God
as a loving, caring, Shepherd. A Shepherd who takes
care of all our needs, whose guidance is absolutely
dependable, and who promises hope for all eternity.
"The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want."
Recently I was
shopping in a card store.
A mother and her daughter, whom I guess to be three,
were standing in front of a display of
Precious Moment stuffed animals.
The child had a lion in one hand, a giraffe in the
other, and she was reaching for a third animal.
The mother,
obviously in a rush, trying to hurry her
daughter's selection process along is saying,
"Honey, just pick one."
This went on for a
minute or two. Finally, they made
their way to the cash register. This is when the
statement "pick one" took on new meaning for me.
When I was a child, and I was told to pick one,
they meant ONE, not one in each
hand as this three year understood it to mean.
So there the little
girl stood, at the cash register, with a
giraffe in one hand and a lion in the other and the
saddest face. Why? Because Mom wouldn’t let her have
the turtle which she wanted.
With a minimal
amount of fussing mother and daughter
left the store. Anyone want to guess what happens about
3/4 minutes later?
If you said, they
came back in the store and bought the
turtle, you are right. The mother saying something like,
"I wasn’t going to get any peace until I gave in."
The daughter was standing, holding all three, with a
victorious smile on her face.
Is this what the Psalmist David meant when he wrote,
"The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want"?
If it is, then how
do we account for all the athletes at the
18th Winter Olympics, who prayed to God to help
them
win a medal, yet they are going home today
without a medal.
How do you explain
the times you prayed fervently for
God to cure a loved one of a disease, and God didn’t?
How are you to justify not getting that raise, that
promotion, that scholarship you wanted so badly?
How do you resolve the inconsistency between what
the Psalmist said,
"The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want"
with the realities of life which left you empty handed?
It is simple to say, "It is God’s will." But those words
don’t cut it when you are trying to console a family who
just received news that their husband and father just
had a cerebral hemorrhage.
It is easy to say, "God knows what is best for you."
Trying tell that to a 12/13 year old girl who wants so
much to accepted by her peers, but who daily is shunned
or ridiculed by her classmates.
We are a society driven by our wants. We are driven so
much that I wonder if there will ever come a point in life
again when we will be a satisfied and content people.
There are people
willing to pay a huge price to get what
they want.
I have seen beautiful girls, become bulimic and anorexic
because they bought into what society says is beautiful.
I have seen teenagers, discard their values, disrespect
their parents, because they wanted to be ACCEPTED.
I have seen families loose their homes, because they
wanted to be rich, and they thought gambling and the
lottery was the answer.
I have seen individuals, throw away their future because
they wanted to feel good, and they turned to
alcohol and drugs.
I have seen families come apart at the seams because
they wanted happiness and they thought happiness
came by having more and more.
I am sure we all remember one of the main news stories
leading up to the winter Olympics four years ago.
Remember Tanya Harding, the figure skater who
wanted the gold medal so bad, that she was willing to
participate in a plot to break the leg of her arch rival,
Nancy Kerrigan.
It is only natural to have wants and desires.
It normal to set goals for yourself.
But What price are you willing to pay to
satisfy your wants?
David wrote,
"The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want"
Are we to understand that David, had everything he
wanted? Was he the picture of perfect contentment?
As king He had goals and wants for the Israelites.
Yet David learned, sometimes at great cost,
to rely on God. To follow his lead.
Psalm 23 is a beautiful Psalm,
BUT for you and I to experience these promises in this
life and the next, we must follow God and obey
God’s commandments.
A group of children were playing follow the leader.
While they were playing, the child who was 6th/7th in
line broke from the line. He decided he was going to be
leader. Some of the children behind him followed him,
others ran to catch up with the original leader.
In spite of our faith in God, how often do we try to usurp
God’s leadership?
Rebelling against
the shepherds leading is actually
rebelling against our own best interest.
"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want"
The secret for David was drawing on God’s power
for strength.
Do you have great needs?
Or are you discontented because you
don’t have what you want?
Learn
to rely on God’s promises
and
Christ’s power
to
help you be content.
If you always want more,
ask God to remove that desire
and
teach you contentment in every situation.
He
will supply all your needs, but in a way that
he knows is best for you.
Pastor Rev. Richard Hayes Weyer
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Thanks to St. Celia's Web for the Hymn
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