Know that the Lord, he is God. It is he who made us, and we are His people and the sheep of his pasture.
– Psalm 100:3
This is one of many times in the Psalms and throughout Scripture that we see God depicted as our Shepherd. And the beauty is these Psalms. Psalms 99, 100, and 101 all talk about the majesty of God and the holiness of God and the glory and grandeur and greatness of God.
Psalm 100:3 is a powerful reminder that we belong to God.
And then you come to a verse like this that talks about how this God, the holy, majestic, glorious, grand, infinitely wonderful, infinitely powerful God is the one who personally made each of us. He made you and you belong to Him. You and I belong to Him. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. The infinitely holy, glorious God is your Shepherd.
And just picture that relationship between a shepherd and sheep. A shepherd loves the sheep, cares for the sheep, feeds the sheep, nourishes the sheep, protects the sheep, leads the sheep, and guides the sheep. All the things we think of in maybe the most famous Psalm, in Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.” He leads me. He guides me, still waters and paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
He protects me when I’m in the valley of the shadow of death in a way that I don’t have to fear. I just want to encourage you today to remember that God is your Shepherd, to look to God as your Shepherd all day long today, to pray to God as your Shepherd, to see yourself as sheep. And in that, to see yourself as totally dependent on the Shepherd’s care for you in all these different ways.
Psalm 100:3 portrays a reality that brings us hope.
And amidst whatever is going on in your life, take comfort today in the reality that the God who reigns and rules over all as we prayed according to and well different Psalms before this, is your Shepherd today. Rest in this reality. Rejoice in this reality and live in this reality. Oh God, we praise you for the many names and images we see all over your Word, that you’ve revealed about who you are and how you love us, and lead us and guide us. And one of those being you’re our Shepherd.
God, we praise you as our Shepherd. We praise you for your love for us, for seeking after us, for saving us, for leading us, for guiding us. I think about Genesis 48:15, when Jacob looks back in his life and he says, “The God of my father, Abraham and Isaac, the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day,” God, we praise you for shepherding our lives all day long today, for your promise to protect us, to feed us, to nourish us, to defend us, to provide for us, to lead us, to guide us.
This verse encourages us to depend on God and his promises towards us.
So we say yes to all these things. Oh God, please lead us. Please guide us. Please direct us. Lord, please nourish us. All the things we need from you that you have promised to do for us. We praise you, that you, the Lord, our God, that you have made us, that we belong to you, that we are your people and the sheep of your pasture. We say thank you for your love for us. Jesus is the fulfillment of all these things. The Good Shepherd, the Great Shepherd who has laid down your life for us. And then we think about in John 10, you said, Lord Jesus, that there are still more sheep that you desire to bring into the fold. Oh God, help us to bring more sheep into the fold. We pray that you would help us to share the gospel today with somebody else.
The good news of your shepherding love, that someone else might become your sheep, family member, friend, neighbor, classmate, co-worker, or somebody else around us today, draw them in. Bring in more sheep into the fold through our lives, our families, our churches, and among the nations.
Prayer for the Botlikh People of Russia
God, we pray for the Botlikh people of Russia, 7,200 of them in the Dagestan region of Russia. God, we pray that you would bring them into the fold. As we pray for these people groups, bring them all into the fold, we pray God. And use our lives as your sheep to bring more sheep into the fold. We pray all of this in light of your picture that you’ve revealed to us as our Shepherd. Lord, we need you. We rest in you. We rejoice in the fact that you are our Shepherd and we pray and surrender to you. Lead us, guide us, direct us as our Shepherd today. In Jesus name according to Psalm 100:3. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
