A God We Can Count On: Confessing Ps 23 "The LORD is my shepherd"

[1] The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

[2] He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters. 

[3] He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake. 

[4] Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me. 

[5] You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows. 

[6] Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.

(Psalm 23 ESV)

Psalm 23 is such a well-known passage. It gets quoted and read time and time again, in books, in movies, in times of illness, in times of trial, at funerals, etc. It has become one of those Bible passages which over-familiarity has made into a cliché.

The thing is, it shouldn't be a cliché. There is a reason that so many Christians have found comfort in these words. There is a reason that so many books and sermons and meditations have been written on and about the Twenty-Third Psalm.

It is a confession of faith in a God we can count on.

"The LORD is my shepherd."  

I was reading through this passage the other day and was struck by the fact that this passage literally says "YHWH is my shepherd";Yahweh is the name,  "I AM WHO I AM", revealed to Moses in Exodus 3:14. There is no other or better place to start in our confession but with Who God says He is. God IS. This is where we have our genesis. This is our foundation. The rest of the psalm is predicated on this first short phrase. Because "I AM WHO I AM" is our Shepherd, we can rest in His unchanging character. He is unchanging--because we are so temporal and whimsical, we cannot seem to remember this for long, but it is God's immutability that is our assurance when we look at His other attributes.

His grace is unchanging.
His faithfulness is unchanging.
His mercy is unchanging.
His holiness is unchanging.
His justice is unchanging.
His love is unchanging.

This list could continue on for pages and still--He is eternal and He does not change.

The littleness that is us cannot comprehend the magnitude of this blessing. But we can rest in the comfort that He is YHWH and He will not change.

[21] But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
[22] The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
[23] they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
[24] “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”

(Lamentations 3:21-24 ESV)