Ps 23 Devo

Good Provision = Gospel Provision

Psalm 23:1 ESV

1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

Psalm 23:3 ESV

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

On Sunday, we were challenged with this point:

Live with Contentment in God’s Good Provision.

The Greatest Display of God’s Good Provision for us is God providing Himself for us, Gospel Provision.

We were sheep without a shepherd, all of us had gone astray

We were malnourished, sleep-deprived, restless, helpless sheep lost on a path of wickedness.

Do we need food, rest, peace, joy, and the path of righteousness? Absolutely.

What do we need more? God Himself. We need the Shepherd.

What we all should cry out on a daily basis:

God, I am in DESPERATE NEED of YOU, YOU ARE WHAT I NEED.

Do you see your spiritual need as your greatest need (not just for salvation, but for daily living)?

OR, do you elevate these other needs to the greatest priority?

As long as I get my food, my rest, my safety, I’m good

I heard an analogy, (not original to me, but to Jeremiah Burroughs, the puritan)

To be content as a result of some external thing is like warming a man’s clothes by the fire.

BUT to be content through an inward disposition of the soul is like a warmth that a man’s clothes have from the natural heat of the body. A man who is healthy in body puts on his clothes, and perhaps at first on a cold morning they feel cold. But after he has had them on a little while they are warm.

Now, how did they get warm? They were not near the fire? No, this came from the natural heat of his body.

Now when a sickly man, the natural heat of whose body has deteriorated, puts on his clothes, they do not get hot after a long time. He must warm them by the fire, and even then they will soon be cold again.

You need so much more than your physical needs (the warmth of the fire), you desperately need God, you desperately need an abiding, daily relationship with Him (the warmth that comes from the body).

There may be times where the money is tight, the food is sparse, you feel sleep-deprived, it seems like the world is unstable and everything seems out of control.

The person content with the things that God gives, will struggle, will lack warmth because his contentment is in the things, and when the things aren’t there, neither is the satisfaction.

The person content with God Himself, will endure, will be “filled with warmth” because his contentment is in God, who cannot be taken away, and He is the source of joy, peace, love. Give me God, that is what I need.

Our Savior guides us

Our Savior is with us

Our Savior blesses us

Our Savior gives us promises

BUT LISTEN TO THIS

Yet no thought so precious, so full of joy to me

Is this thou art my portion, and shalt forever be

Oh this sweet assurance is more than all to me

Thou Savior art my portion, and shalt forever be

YOU. ARE. MY. PORTION.

Why is there contentment and satisfaction? Because of God’s good gospel provision.

My God is my portion

Made possible through my Savior

Made possible through my Redeemer