A Daily Devotional

[Soldier4Christ]

The Good Shepherd

“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.” (Psalm 23:1)

The 23rd Psalm is perhaps the best-loved chapter in the Bible, with its beautiful picture of Christ as the Shepherd. This chapter finds its New Testament exposition in John 10:1-30, where Christ identifies Himself as “the good shepherd” who “giveth his life for the sheep” (John 10:11).

These two chapters (Psalm 23; John 10) are probably the two greatest chapters in the Bible on the security of the believer in Christ. This theme seems woven by divine inspiration into the very structure of the passages. For example, there are six verses in the poetic structure of the psalm, each containing a different testimony concerning the providing and protecting Shepherd. In similar fashion, there are six times the word “shepherd” is used in John 10, each referring again to the work of our Good Shepherd. There are also six references in the other books of the New Testament where Christ is referred to as a shepherd.

The intensely personal aspect of the 23rd Psalm is evidenced by David’s use of the first-person pronouns (“I,” “me,” “my,” etc.) no less than 17 times in its six verses, all expressing his absolute trust in the Lord. Similarly, the word “sheep” is used 17 times in John 10, with the grand theme again stressing the security of the sheep. The number “17” repeatedly seems to crop up in Bible passages related to our security in the Lord. As one example, the famous passage ending the eighth chapter of Romans lists exactly 17 things that can never “separate us from the love of God” (Romans 8:35-39).

In any case, this marvelous psalm of security concludes (as it began) with a great promise and testimony, which can be paraphrased as follows: “Surely [Christ’s] goodness and lovingkindness will pursue me as long as I live, and then I will dwell in God’s great heavenly family through all the ages of eternity!” HMM

[Soldier4Christ]

Clothing

“And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.” (Revelation 1:13)

In the beginning, at the creation of Eve from Adam’s side, “they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed” (Genesis 2:25). There was no need for shame at their lack of clothing for neither had any consciousness of sin or moral guilt. They were truly “one flesh” (v. 24), aware that their physiological differences had been divinely created to bring about God’s purposes for His creation. Any embarrassment would have been quite unnatural.

But soon sin entered; they rejected God’s purposes and plan for their lives. Satan promised they would acquire wisdom, but what was their first taste of wisdom? “And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons” (Genesis 3:7). Their shame must have been multiplied many times over as they heard God pronounce the dreadful Curse on all of creation as a result of their sin. And then two animals (probably sheep) were slain, sacrificed to “make coats of skins” (v. 21) for their covering.

Many years later, another Lamb was slain for sin, stripped of His clothing and hanged on a cruel cross, bearing unthinkable shame. “I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture” (Psalm 22:17-18). Today, having conquered sin and death, He reigns in heaven, “clothed with a garment down to the foot” (text verse). In His death, He arranged for us some day to be “arrayed in fine linen, clean and white” (Revelation 19:, having “washed [our] robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14). JDM

[Soldier4Christ]

Problems, Problems, Problems

“And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.” (Psalm 55:6)

The 55th Psalm is a psalm of “complaint” (v. 2) by David and gives an insight into his thought process as he tried to deal with the great problems and burdens that were overwhelming him. His first instinct was to run away from them, flying like a dove far off into the wilderness.

The prophet Jonah (whose name means “dove”) tried that strategy years later, only to encounter even worse problems (Jonah 1:3, 15). One does not solve problems by fleeing from them.

Then David decided to berate those who were causing him trouble and to complain about them to the Lord. “Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice” (Psalm 55:17). The words “pray, and cry aloud” here actually mean “complain and mourn.” “Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues” (v. 9). “Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell” (v. 15). His burdens were all the heavier because those he had trusted as friends and colleagues were now using deceit and guile against him (vv. 11-14), and the injustice of it all was almost more than he could endure. But complaints and imprecations were also unsatisfying: “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord” (Romans 12:19).

Finally, the Lord gave him an answer, and David found the rest for which he had been so fretfully searching. Here it is: “Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved” (Psalm 55:22). The last phrase of the psalm is “but I will trust in thee” (v. 23).

The way to deal with burdens and problems is not to flee from them or to fret about them but to turn them over to the Lord: “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you” (1 Peter 5:7). HMM

[Soldier4Christ]

God's Story

“Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand.” (1 Corinthians 15:1)

The word “gospel” comes from the Anglo-Saxon “god-spel,” meaning “God-story.” The Greek word is euaggelion, from which we get our word “evangel,” and it means literally “a good message” or “good messenger.” The prefix eu or ev means “good,” and aggelion means “messenger.” Thus, the gospel is the great story of God that is to be preached as by an angel dispatched from God. The word normally is used in the sense of “good news” or “glad tidings,” but this good message is specifically God’s story, sent to lost men from a loving, caring, and saving God.

As our text says, it is a message to be “declared” by its messenger, then “received” (literally “once and for all”) by its hearers. It is the message “by which also ye are saved” (v. 2) and “wherein ye stand.” Then, verses 3 and 4 declare the very heart of what is to be received and believed—the substitutionary death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. It is a dynamic gospel—“the power of God unto salvation” (Romans 1:16) for every true believer.

It is a “glorious gospel” (2 Corinthians 4:4) through which Christ “hath brought life and immortality to light” (2 Timothy 1:10). It is the “gospel of peace” (Ephesians 6:15) and brings “the fullness of the blessing” (Romans 15:29).

Its duration is “everlasting” (Revelation 14:6), and its foundation is the primeval making of “heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters” (Revelation 14:7) by Christ Himself (Colossians 1:16). The apostle Paul gravely warns against “any other gospel” than this gospel that he had preached (Galatians 1:8-9). This gospel, this glad story of God’s grace in creation and salvation, is to be preached “to every creature” (Mark 16:15). HMM

[Soldier4Christ]

Peacemakers

“Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.” (Matthew 5:9)

In this seventh (out of nine) of the Beatitudes with which Christ began His Sermon on the Mount occurs the first mention in the New Testament of the important word “peace.”

But how can one be a peacemaker? Note that Christ did not say: “Blessed are the pacifists.” There are many today who talk about peace, but how does one make peace?

The answer lies in the example of Christ Himself. He is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6), and He “made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself” (Colossians 1:20).

The real problem is that there can be no lasting peace between man and man as long as there is enmity between man and God. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). “And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:18).

With that problem settled, we are now in a position to become true peacemakers, for we also can lead others to God through Jesus Christ. He “hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we...pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:18-20).

As ambassadors for Christ, we are true ambassadors for peace. The best possible contribution we can make toward world peace, racial peace, industrial peace, family peace, or personal peace is to help people become reconciled to God through faith in the peace-making work of Christ on the cross. “These things I have spoken unto you,” says the Lord Jesus, “that in me ye might have peace” (John 16:33). HMM