Discontent? Psalm 23:1 NLT

Psalm 23:1 NLT

A psalm of David.

1 The LORD is my shepherd;

I have all that I need.

The Lord laid it on my heart to study Psalm 23, even though I have done it before. I'm expecting to glean something new from it this time through. I'm reading through "A Shepherds Look at Psalm 23" by W. Phillip Keller as I study it. Today I want to share an excerpt . The last paragraph is particularly interesting.

"I once owned an ewe whose conduct exactly typified this sort of person. She was one of the most attractive sheep that ever belonged to me. Her body was beautifully proportioned. She had a strong constitution and an excellent coat of wool. Her head was clean, alert, well-set with bright eyes. She bore sturdy lambs that matured rapidly.

But in spite of all these attractive attributes she had one pronounced fault. She was restless -- discontented -- a fence crawler. So much so that I came to call her 'Mrs. Gad-about.' This one ewe produced more problems for me than almost all the rest of the flock combined.

No matter what field or pasture the sheep were in, she would search all along the fences or shoreline (we lived by the sea) looking for a loophole she could crawl through and start to feed on the other side.

It was not that she lacked pasturage. My fields were my joy and delight. No sheep in the district had better grazing. With 'Mrs. Gad-about' it as an ingrained habit. She was simply never contented with things as they were. Often when she had forced her way through some such spot in a fence or found a way through the end of the wire at low tide on the beaches, she would end up feeding on bare, brown, burned-up pasturage of a most inferior sort. But she never learned her lesson and continued to fence crawl time after time.

Now it would have been bad enough if she was the only one that did this. It was a sufficient problem to find her and bring her back. But the further point was that she taught her lambs the same tricks. They simply followed her example and soon were as skilled at escaping as their mother.

Even worse, however, was the example she set the other sheep. In a short time she began to lead others through the same holes and over the same dangerous paths down by the sea.

After putting up with her perverseness for a summer, I finally came to the conclusion that to save the rest of the flock from being unsettled, she would have to go.

... it was a difficult decision ... I loved her in the same way I loved the rest. Her strength and beauty and alertness were a delight to the eye. But one morning, I took the killing knife in hand and butchered her. It was the only solution to the dilemma.

She was a sheep, who in spite of all that I had done to give her the very best care -- still wanted something else. She is not the one who said, 'The Lord is my Shepherd -- I shall not want.'

It is a solemn warning to the carnal Christians - the backslider - the one who wants the best of both worlds. Sometimes in short order they can be cut down. "

Blessings, Cecilia