Weekly Devotionals -June 22 – 26
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Monday: Touring Israel
John and Jane Christian are traveling in Israel this week with a group from their church. Each day their guide, Doug, takes the group to a location connected to the life of David and teaches them from Psalm 23. Monday morning the group stood in the fields outside Bethlehem where David tended sheep as a young man. Doug gathered the group and opened his Bible to Psalm 23. He read it aloud slowly, then looked up and told the group that standing in this particular spot changes the way most people hear those words. “You know this psalm,” he said. “You have known it most of your life. Presidents have quoted it. It has been set to music, translated into hundreds of languages, and carried into every imaginable situation — the foxhole, the hospital room, the graveside. What this place does is show you where it came from and why it has always worked.” Doug pointed toward the hills and told the group that David grew up right there. When he thought about God, he thought of a shepherd, because he understood exactly what that meant. He had done it himself — finding grass, finding water, keeping the flock safe and fed every single day. John looked out across the rocky hillside where a few sheep moved slowly along the slope in the distance. He thought about how different this landscape was from what he had always pictured when he read the psalm. It was hard, dry, exposed terrain, the kind of place where a shepherd had to know what he was doing. Doug read verse one again. “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.” He told the group that David packed two declarations into that single verse. The LORD is my shepherd — God personally provides, leads, and cares. I shall not want — every need is met, not every desire but every need. David did not write that as a wish. He wrote it as a man who had watched God provide through the hardest seasons of his life and had run out of reasons to doubt it. Jane opened her Bible and read the verse quietly to herself. She had read it hundreds of times. Standing in the fields where David actually grew up, she was reading it differently.
What Scripture Says
Psalm 23:1 — The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. David declared two truths in this verse and the rest of the psalm explains them. The LORD is my shepherd — God personally provides, leads, and cares for those who follow Him. I shall not want — every need is met. David spoke with full confidence because he had seen God provide through the hardest seasons of his life.
Tuesday: The Swiss Army Knife
John and Jane Christian are in Israel this week with a group from their church, spending each day at locations connected to the life of David as their guide Doug teaches them through Psalm 23. Tuesday morning the group gathered at a site overlooking the Judean wilderness. Before Doug opened his Bible he reached into his bag and held up a small red pocket knife. Ben recognized it immediately and nudged his dad. Doug smiled and told the group it was a Swiss Army Knife. He explained that in the late 1800s the Swiss military needed one tool that could do the work of many. Soldiers needed to maintain their rifles, open their rations, and handle everyday field needs without carrying a separate tool for every task. So they commissioned a compact knife that combined everything into one small package. The first version had a blade, a screwdriver, and a can opener. Today there are more than a hundred different models, some with more than eighty functions. “It became famous not because of its size but because one small tool could help in a wide variety of situations,” Doug said. “Psalm 23 works the same way.” He told the group that Psalm 23 is compact, versatile, and practical. Six verses. Easy to memorize. But those six verses have traveled into more situations than most books ever written. A soldier finds courage in I will fear no evil. A family at a hospital bed finds comfort in thou art with me. A parent carrying the weight of providing for their family finds confidence in a shepherd who provides every need. Doug looked at the group. “The young and the old, the strong and the weak, people celebrating a wedding and people attending a funeral. The same six verses help all of them.” Jane thought about specific people in her own life who had leaned on this psalm through hard seasons. John thought about how many times he had read it without considering the full reach of it. Doug told them that the key ingredient packed into all six verses is hope — not hope the way we use the word today, meaning we want something to happen, but a confident expectation in what God will do. “Because the LORD is David’s shepherd,” he said, “David has hope in every situation. That is why this psalm works for everyone.”
What Scripture Says
Psalm 23:1 — The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. The key ingredient in Psalm 23 is hope — confident expectation in what God will do. Because the LORD is David’s shepherd, David has hope in every situation life brings. Psalm 23 is compact enough to memorize, versatile enough to speak to every stage of life, and practical enough to be carried and applied by anyone at any time.
Wednesday: The Shepherd Leads
John and Jane Christian are in Israel this week with a group from their church, spending each day at locations connected to the life of David as their guide Doug teaches them through Psalm 23. Wednesday morning Doug led the group into the Judean wilderness and stopped near a narrow stretch of grass running alongside a small stream. The contrast with the dry rocky terrain surrounding it was immediate. Doug let the group take it in for a moment before he opened his Bible.
He read verse two. “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, he leadeth me beside the still waters.” He told the group that David was a shepherd in these hills — a rocky desert area where green grass and water had to be found. The sheep could not find it on their own. They depended entirely on the shepherd knowing where it was and how to get them there safely. Doug explained that a sheep will not lie down unless it has been fed, has had water, and feels safe. All three conditions depend completely on the shepherd. When David said God makes me lie down in green pastures he was expressing confidence that God would meet his daily needs the same way a shepherd tracks down provision for his flock every single day.
John thought about the years David spent running from Saul. He had no income, no home, no security during those years. He could not provide for himself. And yet God provided every day without fail. That was the experience behind verse two. Doug compared it to the Lord’s Prayer — give us this day our daily bread. He told the group that David was expressing that same confidence long before Jesus taught those words. Jane said quietly to John that she had never connected those two before. Doug heard her and nodded. “Most people haven’t,” he said. “But David knew what it meant to depend on God for daily provision because he had lived it.”
What Scripture Says
Psalm 23:2 — He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. David expressed confidence that God would provide his daily needs just as a shepherd leads his flock to food and water. A sheep at rest has been fully provided for — fed, watered, and safe. That is the picture David used to describe life with God as his shepherd. David spent years running from Saul with no ability to provide for himself, and God never failed to provide what was needed. The application is the same today. When you follow God and trust Him with your daily needs, you will find the same rest and confidence David described. Day after day you will see Him provide.
Thursday: He Restoreth My Soul
John and Jane Christian are in Israel this week with a group from their church, spending each day at locations connected to the life of David as their guide Doug teaches them through Psalm 23. Thursday morning Doug led the group along a shepherd’s path that wound through the hillside. The ground was uneven and the terrain required attention with every step. He stopped the group on a flat section and opened his Bible to verse three.
He read it aloud. “He restoreth my soul, he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” He asked the group if anyone knew what a cast sheep was. Most shook their heads. Doug explained that sheep did not get to stay in one pasture. Shepherds had to constantly move them to keep them fed, and along the way sheep would become tired, sick, weak, or injured. A cast sheep is one that has ended up on its back and cannot get back on its feet. It can happen when a sheep’s wool grows too thick and matted, making it top heavy, or when a sheep lies down on uneven ground. Once a sheep is on its back with its legs in the air it cannot recover on its own. Gases from the stomach build up quickly, blood stops circulating, and without the shepherd that sheep will die within hours.
Doug told the group what the shepherd does when he finds a cast sheep. He turns it over, holds it upright, and rubs its legs until circulation returns. He speaks calmly and stays with it until the sheep is steady enough to stand. John thought about that image quietly. He had felt that way more than once in his life — too far down to get back up on his own. Beth looked at her dad and then back at Doug. Doug continued. “That is what David meant by he restoreth my soul. God finds him, turns him over, and stays with him until he can walk again. That is not distant care. That is personal, hands on, patient restoration.”
What Scripture Says
Psalm 23:3a — He restoreth my soul.
A cast sheep cannot save itself. It requires the personal attention of the shepherd to survive. David used that picture to describe what God does in the hardest and most helpless moments of life. He finds His people when they are down, tends to what is damaged, and stays until strength returns. David knew this from experience. Through every hard season of his life God personally cared for him and restored him. The same shepherd who restored David is available to every person who has ever felt too far down to get back up on their own.
Friday: The Path He Leads
John and Jane Christian are in Israel this week with a group from their church, spending each day at locations connected to the life of David as their guide Doug teaches them through Psalm 23. Friday morning the group gathered on a hillside overlooking a network of ancient paths that wound through the terrain in several directions. Some led toward open areas with visible patches of green in the distance. Others disappeared into rocky ground. Doug pointed toward them and told the group that a shepherd had to know every one of those paths before he ever led the sheep onto them. He had to know where each one led, which ones were safe, and which ones would take the flock somewhere they could not survive. A sheep following the wrong path would not know it had made a mistake until it was too far from water, too far from grass, or on ground too dangerous to navigate. The shepherd’s job was to know the paths ahead of time and lead the flock toward the ones that led to life. Doug read the second part of verse three. “He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” He told the group that David was describing two things at once. God leads His people away from paths that end in destruction and toward paths that lead to life, refreshment, and peace with Him. Following God’s commands is the shepherd keeping the sheep on ground that leads somewhere good. “When you do not follow God in the path of righteousness,” Doug said, “it is not if but when you arrive at destruction. The sheep that wanders from the shepherd does not find freedom. It finds ground the shepherd never intended it to be on.” Ben said quietly to his dad that it made sense now why God’s commands felt restrictive sometimes. John nodded and told him that was exactly the point — the sheep that thinks the shepherd is limiting it does not yet understand where the other paths go. Doug closed the week by reminding the group that the first three verses of Psalm 23 lay the foundation for everything else David would write. The LORD provides. The LORD restores. The LORD leads. That is why David could open with such confidence. The LORD is my shepherd. I shall not want.
What Scripture Says
Psalm 23:3b — He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. The shepherd knew every path before leading the sheep onto it. He led them toward provision and away from danger. David saw God doing the same in his own life.