"The Lord is My Shepherd"

Moving on from the "Anguish and Praise" we come to that which is pure "Delight": 'The Twenty-Third Psalm'. There are no complaints or doubts rendered for God's protection, or heavy tears and cries of being afflicted, or even the aches and pains of living in a fallen world; just pure delight in being in the loving arms of our Shepherd, Jesus Christ! Isn't that what a New Day in Christ is to be like? The Twenty-Second Psalm shows Christ as the Lamb given for the slaughter, while this Psalm has Christ depicted as the Great and Good Shepherd that provides and cares for His sheep; His sheep being you and I. In John 10:11, Jesus speaking of Himself being the only way, and the way of His 'Door' being the only way into the sheepfold, which was a continuation of His answer to the Pharisees' question, "Are we blind also?", He says, "I am the Good Shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep". His initial answer that He gave to their question was, "If you were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth". (John 9:41) There is a certain comfort that comes from resting in Christ, and in the finished work that He has provided for us to rest in; this comfort that we get to experience is what we referrer to as 'Peace'; peace that is not as the world gives, but is only available in the sheepfold of Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd. The point made to the Pharisees was one about their total lack of experiencing what He had to offer because they thought they could earn their way to heaven by their works, and that they were righteous in doing so. Nothing could be further from the truth, as they should have known; for had they really paid attention to the Scriptures that they so earnestly studied, then they would have realized the truth. Isaiah 64:6 says, "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags; and we do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." There is none that can abide in God's presence without having been made clean; and trying to get their through our own righteousness, is like taking what should otherwise be clean rages of good works, and rubbing them on our filthy bodies, and then offering them up to God. There is no way to know the Peace of God, let along see the Peace available, without first entering into the Door of the Good Shepherd; and that Door is Jesus Christ and all that He represents as the one who lays down His life for His sheep... "I am the Good Shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine." (John 10:14)