The Grass is always Greener!

I have been spending the majority of my "devotional reading" time in the Psalms as of late. In fact, I am preaching out of the Psalms on Sunday evenings so I have been reading at least one Psalm a day. This past week I was reading in Psalm 23.

Obviously a very familiar Psalm to all of us. As I began to read the very first line of Psalm 23..."The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want"...I began to laugh as I remembered the very first time I read this Psalm. It was when I was only 16 years old and had just become a christian. I remember reading this phrase and not understanding the word "want". I thought the word "want" in this verse was referring back to the the first phrase...the Lord is my shepherd. So, I thought the connection went something like this - "the Lord is my shepherd that I do not want". I couldn't understand why the Psalmist David was saying that the Lord is His Shepherd that he really didn't want!! Obviously, that is not the meaning here.

What David is really saying is...The Lord is my Shepherd; (therefore) I shall not want or "lack"! Because I have a Shepherd (and it is the Lord Jesus Christ) I do not lack or need anything! This thought is repeated often in the Psalms, like in Psalm 84 where it says "the Lord is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly".

This is a very important truth that we must remember because it is the "lie" that the Evil One constantly tries to seduce us with. It is the very essence of Satan's temptation of Adam and Eve in the garden. And it is the essence of every temptation that comes our way. What was so tempting to Adam and Eve that they disobeyed God? It certainly wasn't that the fruit just looked so delicious! No, it was what the fruit stood for - wisdom, a wisdom that was unknown to Adam and Eve. A wisdom that would make them like God. So much so that they would no longer need to depend upon God. Since God created Adam and Eve, they were totally dependent upon Him. The created being cannot even make sense of why they were created unless the Creator gives them instruction. It is understood that the creation is totally dependent upon its Creator! But, they bought into the lie of the Evil One that God their Father was "holding out" on them. That their was something that was "good" for them that He was withholding and not allowing them to have. They believed the lie and it led them to "sin" and "misery" and "depression" and "isolation". The Evil One is always on the attack in this way. He is constantly bombarding us with the "lie" that we are not getting all that we could be getting and he usually takes it one more step - not only that we are not getting all that we could be getting, but that we are not getting all that we SHOULD be getting! Our sinful nature feasts upon this and turns something we do not have into a "need". We begin to "demand" that we must have whatever it is and believe the lie that we cannot truly live (and be happy) without it!

How sad it is when we find ourselves believing this lie and then behaving in a way that lines up with this thought. Not only is it wrong but it is nothing less than idolatry. We are worshiping something else other than God. Anytime we believe that we cannot live without something - we are worshiping it! And since GOD HIMSELF is truly the only thing that we cannot live without, it is idolatry because we have replaced God with something or someone else!

This is why Paul in Romans 8 reminds us that God did not spare His own Son! If He did not spare "sending" His Son and "crushing" His son and then "delivering" His Son FOR US than do we really think He is going to hold back from us anything that we truly need! No, He will graciously give us all things!

Too many of us Christians are still believing the lie that the "grass is always greener". But Psalm 23 shows us where the grass is truly always green! It is when the Lord is my Shepherd and He is in control of my path. It is when He makes (forces) me to lie down in GREEN PASTURES. It is when He leads (directs) me beside still waters. It is while He leads (orders my steps) in the paths of righteousness for His Name's sake! Psalm 23 shows us that the "grass is always greener" when we are underneath our God's Sovereign care knowing that anything we have NEED of He will supply and anything that is not supplied, I must not NEED!

Let's rest in Psalm 23:1 - and agree with David as he speaks the truth - THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD - I SHALL NOT WANT!