Fourth Day: "The Lord is MY shepherd."
This psalm belongs to us if we can truthfully say these first five
words; then the rest of the psalm is our spiritual possession.
One of my friends was telling me the story of a traveler in Switzerland.
He was a Christian. One day he came across a little shepherd boy to whom
he told the story of the good Shepherd who had given his life for the
sheep. He tried to teach him the twenty-third psalm but the little
fellow could not read, and so made slow work of it. At last the man said
to him, " I will tell you how to read a part of it on your fingers. Just
take the first five words, and you will have a word for each finger." So
the little fellow counted the words on his fingers, "The Lord is my
Shepherd." This was only to keep them in his memory.
A while after that the same traveler was passing through Switzerland
again, and thought he would look up his little shepherd boy. He came to
the place where he had lived, and was met by the mother of the lad, who
in answer to the inquiry concerning her boy said that he was dead. The
gentleman expressed his sorrow, and said that he had hoped to see him
again.
Then the mother said, "Are you the man that taught my boy to say
something on his fingers?" He replied that he was, Then she said to him,
"My boy, just before he died, told me to tell you, if you ever came this
way again, that he died holding the fourth finger of his hand." The
little fellow was just laying claim to the possessive pronoun "my."
I think I should like to die like that. But it is better far to know
that we may live claiming this promise. He is my shepherd--all
that he is is mine, his mind, his peace, his meekness, his gentleness,
indeed, his spirit, all my own.
There is surely thus no excuse for failure, and there can be no reason
why we should go astray.
"Thou art my light and my salvation;
Of whom shall I be afraid?"
SUGGESTIONS FOR TODAY.
1. Try to realize that everything in the good Shepherd is yours for
today just as truly as if
there were no one else to be considered but yourself.
2. By an act of appropriating faith lay claim to everything in him that
you lack in yourself, his patience for your impatience, his strength for
your weakness. In every case claim from him the grace opposite to your
failing.
3. Remember that no mistake of yours in the past affects his love for
today. The record is all clean; you can make it what you will.