Monday, January 5th | Daily Devotion

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures.He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 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. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 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

TRANSCRIPTION:

Good morning, good morning. I pray everybody's up and well on this wonderful, wonderful Monday morning. Welcome, welcome to our weekday daily devotional here at Community Baptist Church. I'm Pastor Powell and I figured the best way for us to kick off this incredible year was to start out in this wonderful book of Psalms. If you've been with us for some time over the past couple of years, we've always taken an account during the time of Lent to stop, take a few moments out of our day and worship the Lord by way of devotion. It's my prayer that you and your family will do the same, only we're not just limited to 40 days.

We're going to do this and commit to doing this for the entirety of the year. So that being said, there will be a devotional scripture and a devotional reflection for every weekday from now and prayerfully until we do Happy New Year 2027. Since we are couched in the book of Psalms, I wanted to go through something very familiar and very simple. The 23rd song, I know you've all heard it before, but maybe, just maybe we could take a different look.

"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He guides me in path of righteousness for his name sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil. For you're with me. You're riding your staff. They comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy and love will follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

All the Psalms have a similar parallel. As you can see, as David was writing these Psalms, they were directly connected to specific situations that were taking place in his life. Specifically, as we look at this wonderful 23rd Psalm, probably the most famed one, I want you in your quiet time to take a look at 1 Samuel chapter 16, around the first through 13th verses. Just a little bit to study on. It's at that place and point where God allows David to be anointed to king.

Here's the problem: David didn't have any of the trappings of the supposed king. Saul, his predecessor, was way more apparently appeasing from a nature of an aesthetic value. He looked more kingly. As a matter of fact, they could think of plenty of other people, because David had other brothers, but it was David who was chosen. And specifically where he was chosen. Take a look at the scripture. You'll find that David was chosen while in the pasture being a shepherd. Can you kind of see the parallel here?

23rd Psalm breaks out to give us this example of what it means to be a sheep underneath the guidance of a good shepherd. David is working as a shepherd and his faithfulness intending to sheep. The parallel is very simple that sheep in and of themselves are going to go through a number of different things, whether it be traveling through the valley of shadow of death, whether it be just walking beside still waters and meeting a guide.

Either way, it is the responsibility and the promise of the shepherd to ensure safe passage for each sheep. And so David had some experience as it were, as it relates to shepherding. But in this instance, David is gonna understand and get an eyewitness account what it means to be a sheep. And what it means to be a sheep is trusting the shepherd. So here's my question, my reflection for you is simple. Can you recall areas where God guided you besides still waters? And, can you recall areas and places where God had to travail with you through the valley of the shadow of death? These are all common experiences as it relates to the human nature and human kind. However, without the guidance of a good shepherd, these can be more than just challenging. They can be life debilitating.

So as you go throughout your day, I want you to keep in mind, God being the great shepherd that he is, consistently there, it's only a matter of us as sheep acknowledging his sovereign authority over our lives and the day-to-day experiences. So even that little thing that you're stressing about right now or that situation that you've yet to handle, maybe this is the time for you to hand it over to the shepherd. Just a few thoughts for you today. I pray that this devotion will work well with you and your family and that you have an incredible Monday. I'll see you on Tuesday. God bless you. Good morning.